For those who enjoy Gravity just the way it is
by Luci-Marlena
Summary: Fight between Alpha and Beta? I'm staying on the sidelines... Wait, what are they doing? Ew, that's my SISTER! Who knew that would happen? Seth POV.. Previously called "You"... Winner of Best Seth; "The Two Sides of Twilight Forum Best of '09"
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.

Set: Sometime after BD.

**Seth POV.**

_

* * *

_

_You_

It's been about forty-three minutes since our battle with the newborns. They were sent by one of the guards of the Volturi, (we're thinking the mean little one, Jane), and went after Nessie. So, naturally, we fought. It went well: the Cullens and our pack split up the newborns. Luckily none of the newborns had any special powers, so the fight went by quickly.

Now, when we should be celebrating, we're anticipating another fight.

This time, no vamps are involved. It's much worse; it's between Leah and Jacob.

My Beta and my Alpha.

My sister and my idol.

I'm definitely staying out of this one.

She's expecting him to thank her for protecting Nessie during the fight, and he's expecting her to thank him for, quote, "saving her sorry ass again." It looks like Jake never got tired of bringing up the newborn fight a couple years back. Yes, so the whole right side of his body was crushed when he protected Leah, but I still think she could've handled it. It wasn't her fault anyway; she was worried about me, although I didn't need protecting. Edward and I made a kick-ass team destroying that leech Riley.

However, let's get back to the fight at hand.

When Nessie was supposed to stay by her mother's side, she came running into the clearing to help Jake and almost got herself killed. She wasn't paying attention to her surroundings and didn't see the two leeches coming up behind her. Leah, being the closest wolf there, intervened. She jumped and knocked Nessie down just before the leeches sprang up to grab her. Leah then totally kicked the leeches' asses while protecting Nessie. While she was busy with dismembering the two leeches and protecting Nessie she didn't notice another leech coming at her from her right. Jake saw it, though, and took him out before he had the chance to get at Nessie and Leah.

Just like before, Leah didn't think she needed help getting that vamp. She feels like she could've handled it. Considering how she took two leeches at once while protecting Nessie, I think she has a valid point. Then again, if Jake didn't go to help her, I probably would've been pissed that he didn't try to help Leah. Older or not, she's still my sister and I love her. I don't want to see her get hurt, and if that means that she has to suck up her pride and get some help from Jake then so be it.

Neither of them sees it my way, though: they've both helped each other. Leah protected his imprint, and Jake protected her.

Fair enough, right?

Not according to them.

Right now they're glaring at each other from across the clearing. Neither of them is willing to make the first move. He's waiting for her to come and thank him, and she's waiting for him to thank her and apologize for interfering. Clearly, both parties are unwilling to acknowledge the other's demands.

Oh boy.

"Seth, Quil, Embry," Jacob addresses us, never breaking his gaze with Leah. "Leave. Now."

"What do you want us to do?" Quil asks.

"I don't care. Go home. Go do patrol. I don't care, just leave. Now," he snaps at us impatiently.

Not wanting to have to deal with an angry Alpha, we head to the forest and phase.

'_Oh man, did you see how pissed Jake was? I've never seen him this mad before,'_ Quil thought to us.

'_Yeah, Jake has always gotten pissed off, but right now he's furious. Leah looks worse though,'_ Embry thought.

'_I really don't know what's going to happen. I know my sister and she won't stand down until she gets her way,'_ I tell them, and then show them memories of when I was younger with Leah. Halloween just wasn't the same after my fight with Leah, which I lost. I was five, she was eight, and I had this cool Power Rangers costume and she had some princess costume. She yelled that she didn't want to be a princess but wanted to be a Power Ranger. I refused, as best as any five year old could, and said that it was my costume. Needless to say, by the time that we got out to trick or treat, it was near 10 o'clock and my costume was not a Power Ranger. Nope, my parents caved and put her in the Power Ranger costume, while I was a fair princess. People still think I'm a cross-dresser. Stupid stubborn sister.

Embry snickers, _'Leah is one tough bitch, literally. She can take care of herself. I'm betting she gets a few good licks in when those two stubborn asses duke it out.'_

'_Man, did you see Jake? He's beyond pissed. Stubborn or not, when Jake's pissed and he wants something, he gets it. Remember that time we were playing Playstation? Who won the argument Embry? Oh right, Jacob. Not you,'_ Quil says.

'_Are you guys seriously going to bet on who's going to win the fight?' _I ask incredulously.

'_Yeah!'_ they say at the same time.

I shouldn't be surprised; it's _Embry and Quil._

'_Ten on Leah,'_ Embry bets.

'_Team Jacob right here!'_ Quil retorts enthusiastically.

'_You guys are so wrong that you'd bet when your mother would die on her deathbed. It's disgusting,'_ I inform them.

'_You're just upset that you can't choose a side because both would kick your ass if you chose the other,'_ Quil reasons.

'_True,'_ I mumble regrettably.

We watched the clearing from the bushes. We were far enough that they couldn't see us—not like they were concentrating on anything else other than trying to kill one another through glares—but close enough to hear their argument.

'_In this corner we have the seething Alpha himself, Jacob Black. Standing at 6'8" and weighing 285 pounds,_' Quil says in the cheesy voice that announcers use in wresting stadiums.

Embry snickers before playing along. _'And defending her title as the most badass chick in La Push, we have the royally pissed off, the infamous, the bitchy Beta, Leah Clearwater. The lovely Miss Clearwater is standing at 6' and weighing 200 pounds. Although she's slight, she's spry.'_

Quil nods. _'Looks like these two are going to have one hell of a fight Embry.'_

I groan. I don't know what's worse, hearing these two pretend to be announcing a fight at a stadium, or actually watching two people I care about tear each other to shreds.

'_Right you are Quil, let's watch.'_

I think it's a tie.

Leah keeps her arms folded across her chest, as she scowls at Jake. Jake matches her scowl with an eyebrow raise as if saying, 'I'm waiting.'

Leah sighs and drops her head, as if admitting defeat.

'_Huh?'_ I think. This isn't her normal behavior.

'_YES! Ha ha! You owe me ten Embry!'_ Quil shouts.

Leah looks up at Jacob shaking her head, "No need to thank me."

'_BURN!'_ Embry shouts.

I knew she wasn't giving up.

Quil whimpers, and pictures a ten dollar bill in his mind, _'So close.'_

Embry laughs_, 'You didn't think she'd go down without a fight did ya?'_

"Thank you? _Thank _you? Are you insane? You jeopardized the pack! You went running into danger, _again_." He yells, "Dammit Leah, this is just like the other newborn attack. It's not just about you!" He rounds on her.

"Oh I'm so sorry!" she screeches sarcastically. "I just thought that the all-mighty Alpha might want everyone to be alive after this attack, including his _imprint._ Silly me for thinking that," she sneers.

"This isn't about Nessie," he grinds out.

"Really? Not about Nessie? So it's not about the fact that you _weren't _the one to save Nessie today? It's not about how _I_ was the one to defend the stupid Spawn that decided to run into a _battle zone_? Are you sure, all-mighty Alpha?" she asks with a mocking edge.

"Yes," he spits out.

"_Bull shit!_ It's always about Nessie! Nessie this, Nessie that. For the love of God, I made sure the Spawn was alive! The least I deserve is a fucking 'Thank you, Leah.' Is it too much to ask for? I think after facing two leeches on my own to protect the Spawn means that I fucking earned it," she yells at him, shaking.

'_Oh snap, looks like Leah's going to phase,'_ Embry says.

'_If she hears that we're watching them, we're so screwed,'_ I tell them.

'_Nah, look at Jake. He's shaking so much he's practically blurry around the edges. If she phases, he will too. They'll both be too preoccupied with killing each other that they won't notice what we're doing,'_ Quil thinks.

"DAMN IT Leah I'm not going to thank you!" Jake shouts at her.

"Why the fuck not?" Leah asks, folding her arms across her chest again.

'_Oh pissed off position. Damn, Embry, you could get my ten,'_ Quil says.

'_Knew I would,'_ Embry replies smugly.

"Because the pack could have gotten hurt with you going out on your own like that," Jake chastises.

"The pack was fine! Quil and Embry teamed up, and Seth and Edward were handling everything. The pack was fine! No one got hurt!" Leah retorts.

"You almost did," Jake points out darkly.

'_I thought he would milk that. Perfect opportunity to…'_ Quil trails off.

'_Why is he looking like that? Is he…'_ Embry wonders.

"I can handle myself. Your imprint, on the other hand, needed protection. I was there _protecting_ your _precious_ imprint. I was protecting _Nessie_," Leah growls at him.

At this point, both Leah and Jake are now only a foot apart in the center of the clearing, having stomped closer to be able to _really _yell in each other's faces.

"God DAMN IT Leah, I don't care about Nessie!" Jacob shouts at her.

'_What?!'_ Quil shouts.

'_I don't get it,'_ I admit.

'_Oh. My. God. He doesn't mean…'_ Embry trails off.

"Excuse me?" Leah whispers.

Jake runs a hand down his face and mumbles something we can't hear. Whatever he said has Leah speechless.

Leah just looks at him dumbly for a long time. Jake shifts from one foot to the other. "Why?" Leah asks in a small voice.

Without hesitation, Jake grabs Leah's face in his hands and kisses her. Leah responds eagerly and wraps her arms around his neck, pulling him closer.

'_Crap, who won the bet __now__?'_ Quil complains.

'_Took them long enough,'_ Embry rolls his eyes playfully.

'_Damn, that's getting pretty heated,_' Quil jokes.

'_Aw gross. Guys, that's my sister! Hey! THAT'S MY SISTER!' _I shout.

Quil and Embry laugh.

'_Jerks.'_

Finally, while I'm contemplating between killing Jake or scratching my eyes out, they separate, _panting._ Ew.

Jake rests his forehead on Leah's and breaths, "That's why."

"But, Nessie—" Leah starts.

"No," Jake shakes his head, "_You_, Leah." He smiles and she beams back at him.

I haven't seen her smile like that, ever. Not even with Sam.

He looks at her with questioning eyes and she nods at him, smiling.

"_You_, Jacob," she tells him.

Whatever she said put a goofy grin on his face. He kissed her on the lips again before grabbing her hand and leading her out of the clearing.

'_What do you think he said?'_ Quil asks.

'_I have no idea. Must have been something really, really, really nice to get her to smile like that,'_ I tell him.

'_I think I have an idea,'_ Embry tells us.

'_Yeah?'_ I ask.

He nods his head and proceeds to show us the times, post Nessie imprint, between Jake and Leah. In all of them, they're both looking at each other with this _look._ When the other doesn't notice, when they're having their little Alpha/Beta meetings, when they're hanging out at our house. It's the same look that Jared and Kim, Paul and Rachel, and Sam and Emily share. Finally he goes to show us the time when he phased for patrol early. Jake was the only wolf so his thoughts weren't exactly guarded.

'_I guess he didn't sense me phase because he was still agonizing over his thoughts,'_ Embry tells us before he shows us what happened.

**Flashback Embry's POV**

'_How do I tell her? God she's not going to believe me. No, she'll just kill me before I can explain. God why is she so difficult.' _

Oh God, he's fussing over something to do with Nessie. Well, she _is_ his imprint… Guess he's not handling the 'aging at the speed of light' thing too well… or the fact that she's half vamp.

_I could always use the Alpha command… No, not on her. Never on her. Not for this.' _

Huh? Alpha command? Is he talking about…

'_Leah.'_

'_Oh God how am I going to tell her? Edward knows, which means Bella knows, and Jasper knows, which means Alice knows, which means that everyone else in the house knows…'_

What does he mean _knows_? What the hell do they know?

'_Jasper says that she feels it too… But she's so stubborn. Arg, how hard can this be? C'mon Jacob, you did this with Bella; you can sure as hell do it with Leah Clearwater. Just look at her in the eye and tell her. Leah Clearwater, I'm in love you. Imprint or not, I love __you__.'_


	2. Chapter 2

_Imprinting: "It's so hard to describe. It's not like love at first sight, really. It's more like gravity moves. When you see her suddenly it's not the earth holding you there anymore. She does. And nothing matters more than her." (p. 176, Eclipse)_

* * *

_An Awkward Day_

Holy shit.

What the hell just happened? I mean, first they were fighting, then they were all starry eyed at each other, and then they make out. Plus, let's not forget Embry's memory where Jake 'confesses' his love to Leah.

'_Leah Clearwater, I'm in love you. Imprint or not, I love __you__,' _I shudder as I replay Embry's memory.

Drugs. That's it. Everyone on the res is right, we're on drugs. LSD, weed, heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, meth, mushrooms, PCP, the whole nine yards. The entire two packs must be really doped up. We must be because Leah and Jake would never moon over each other like that and then proceed to make out after they were yelling at each other. Right?

I whimper. God must hate me.

I look in the direction where Jake and Leah left. _'I really don't want to know what they're doing right now.'_

'_Each other,'_ Quil says with a wolfy waggle of the eyebrows.

Embry groans, _'Dude that line is older than your grandfather.'_

'_And I really, really don't want know details about my sister's love life,'_ I add.

'_Hey!'_ Quil cries offended. _'I'll have you know that my grandfather happened to like that line. And as for your sister, Seth, I'm betting that the rustle in the bushes isn't from a lone squirrel, but a little rendezvous between Jake and –'_

'_Make it stop!'_ I shout, covering my ears with my paws.

'_Chill, dude. Just phase if Quil is annoying you so much,'_ Embry suggests.

I phase immediately before I can hear anymore perverted thoughts of my sister and Alpha having a special "Alpha and Beta 'meeting'" from Quil. For the love of god, Leah is my sister and I really don't want to hear any thoughts about Jake "hittin' it, then quittin' it" with her.

I grab the pair of shorts tied around my leg and throw them on before I realize that I'm trapped. I'm nowhere _near _home, and phasing for a quick run home is simply not an option at the moment. Quil will make lewd jokes about Jake and my sister, and Embry will either help, make a bet on how long it will be until they get caught by Charlie for 'indecent exposure', or both.

Option number two would be running home in the rain. I don't want to sound like a girl, but I really don't want to run like a human all the way home. It's annoying trying to keep a 'normal human pace' and getting soaked. There is a third option, however; I could always go to the Cullens and borrow one of their cars. From this clearing, I'm only a five minute walk from the Cullens' home. I grin at the thought of driving to the res in one of the Cullens' many cars, my favorite being Rosalie's flaming red sports car. The first time I saw it, I thought I imprinted.

Halfway there, I realize how royally screwed I am. I close my eyes and sigh, trying to muster up some patience because I know, I just know, that the minute I walk in there I'm going to be bombarded with questions. The Cullens haven't seen us since Leah and Jake stormed out of the house, and I'm sure they'll have some questions.

I can see it now, I'll walk in, and the whole clan will be in the "living" room. I'll walk in as silently as I can, but they'll hear me. Then, everyone will start asking talking at once, all wanting to know what happened between Leah and Jake after they stomped outside from the yelling match that rivaled Leah's bitch fit with Bella.

I reach the house and that's when it happens. Basically, it goes like this: I sneak into the house quietly, trying to keep my thoughts quiet, while looking for Esme or Carlisle (Those two would ask the least questions and would give me the keys to get home the fastest). But with my luck, they all hear me with their super-vampiric-hearing, officially ending my James Bond-stealth career and ruining my faith in my werewolf abilities.

Edward, being the fastest, gets to me first. He smiles and holds me while the rest of the Cullen "children" run around the house, scrambling to help Edward. I look around the house, trying to occupy my mind as to give nothing away to Edward.

Suddenly, the TV catches my eye. It's that commercial with the two kids having an eyebrow showdown. I watch in amazement as the little boy does his thing, only to be outshined by the quick eyebrow wave by the little girl. How do they do that? Insanely jealous, I try to do the eyebrow wave. Leah can do it. She even tried to teach it to me once...before she ran out of patience and threatened to shave them off if I didn't stop bothering her.

I hear Edward groan and glare at the TV before yelling at Jasper to turn it off. Once it's off, he smiles maniacally, probably thinking that I'll spill the beans now that I have no distraction. _'Well buddy, if you think I'm going to slip, you are so wrong. If I was able to keep our surprise birthday party from Leah when in wolf-form—_the party was a complete success by the way—_then I can withstand whatever you and your family throw at me. What happened is in the vault. You can't break me. If you want to know what happened, you'll just have to ask Leah and Jake yourself,' _I think with a smirk on my face.

"It's all set up Edward!" Alice yells.

I hear Emmett clap as Edward carries me into the room and sets me down on a dining room chair. Faster than I can get up, Rosalie and Alice tie me to the chair. Tight. My eyes widen at the realization that they're going to torture me, in their own way, until I talk. I shoot a pleading look to Esme, begging her to be the compassionate second mother that she is, and release me. She looks away and I know I've lost. Shaking my head, I know I have no allies in this fight. You would think that after being around for centuries that they wouldn't be interested in gossip anymore.

"We're just concerned about Jacob and your sister," Edward answered my thoughts, "They've become a part of our family and we care for them."

I roll my eyes, I don't think that any of the Cullens, with the exception of Rosalie (Because, smell or not, they became 'BFFIL' – Best Friends For Immortal Lives) and Esme (Her motherly instincts prevent her from loving anyone) generally care for Leah.

"You'd be surprised," Edward muttered looking at his family.

Alice huffs and glares at Edward, "I want answers now, Edward! Just read his mind and get it over with!"

I smirk at Alice; she has no idea how stubborn I can be. I am related to Leah Clearwater: being around her has taught me a lesson or two…or forty.

Jasper looks at me, clearly concentrating on my emotions. Before his staring becomes extremely awkward, he tells Alice what he thinks. "It will take a lot to break him. He's stubborn, cocky, and I can feel an undercurrent of worry. He won't say anything willingly."

Hell yeah I won't say anything! Leah is my sister, not to mention the pack's Beta, and Jake is my friend, Alpha, and maybe a brother-in-law?

I see Edward eyes widen before he breaks into a huge smile, and I realize my slip. "Shit!" I growl.

"What is it? What did he think, Edward! What did he think?" Alice bounces up and down.

"What about Leah? Did anything happen to Leah? I swear, I don't care if he imprinted on my niece, I'll kill him if he hurt Lee," Rosalie growls. Emmett wraps a comforting arm around Rose whispering to her that Leah probably kicked Jake's ass.

That makes me think about we were watching Jake and Leah glare each other to death which made Quil and Embry bet on whose would be kicked, and then the kiss, how they have no idea who 'won,' and then Jake's 'confession' about his—my thought is interrupted by Edward laughing his immortal ass off. The rest of the Cullen family looks at Edward in complete confusion. I hang my head down in shame, realizing what I just did. I spilled the beans. I gave everything up like a cheap whore on Prom night.

Edward calms down, probably with some help from Jasper, who's smiling in the corner, and explains to his family what he saw in my head.

Alice squeals and shouts, "I knew it! I _knew_ it would happen!"

Emmett laughs and rubs his hands together, probably thinking of dirty jokes to embarrass Jake and Leah.

Esme is smiling like a proud mother, which, I guess she is.

Jasper looks unfazed, like he knew it was going to happen. Given his empathy powers, he probably felt it coming.

Now, Edward is just smiling.

I look over to Rosalie for her reaction. Hers is the only Cullen opinion that Leah actually cares about. She's beaming! She looks so happy and grabs Emmett in for a sweet kiss, which turns into something passionate, and in need of a locked room.

I struggle against the rope and bungee cords they tied around my hands and legs, trying to free myself. Esme, noticing my struggle, comes over and unties me. She gives me a warm smile before apologizing, "I'm sorry we had to do this Seth. We were just really worried about them. Jasper said that they were both feeling very angry, murderous even, and Edward could only hear murderous thoughts from the both of them."

I nod in understanding, and thank her for untying me and make my way out the door. I'm about to run home, too exhausted to phase and deal with Quil and Embry, or having to talk with one of the Cullens to ask for a ride, when a voice stops me.

"Seth!" Rosalie calls.

I turn around and quickly catch the set of keys she tosses to me. I stare at the keys, (well, more specifically, the Ferrari keychain), in wonder. "Just drive her back next time you have to patrol around here," she tells me. I nod and stare longingly at the Cullen garage, "Tell Leah I need to talk to her. Okay, Seth?" she asks.

I mumble, "Uh huh."

Rosalie laughs before she struts back into the house calling over her shoulder, "If I see one scratch on my baby, I'll kill you. Regardless of who your sister is to me!"

"Gotcha!" I call as I make my way to the Cullen garage. Opening the garage door, I nearly collapse just _looking _at this magnificent creature. I let my hand glide over the hood of the Ferrari 612 Scaglietti. It is equipped with the optional Handling GTS, Daytona style seats, personalized stitching and leather details, a yellow rev counter, yellow brake calipers and Scuderia Ferrari shields. Basically, it's any guy's wet dream, and I get to drive it!

I slide into the seat and moan; the leather feels so good. I adjust the seat and start the car. I rev the engine and slam down on the gas and speed it out of the garage.

I make it home in four minutes and stare at the car for a couple minutes before kissing the hood and making my way inside.

As soon as I'm inside, I can feel that something is off, wrong in some way. And then I hear it, a moan followed by a girlish giggle. Oh no, I close my eyes and count to ten for patience. It's Jake and Leah making out, I know it. Why couldn't they just be happy doing that in the bushes? They just had to come and make me want to bleach the couch, didn't they?

I turn into the living room, ready to yell at my Alpha and Beta to get a room, preferably one in a Forks hotel, far, far away, when I'm met by a disgusting sight. My mother and Charlie groping and making out like two teenagers who have the house to themselves.

"Oh Chief Swan, I've been a bad, bad girl," my mom giggles.

"Do I have to get my cuffs out, miss?" Charlie asks in a husky voice.

"Oh dear GOD! BLEACH! I NEED BLEACH! MOM! WHY? WE _SIT_ ON THAT COUCH!" I shout, completely disgusted and horrified.

Surprised, Charlie falls off the couch, taking a "bad, bad" Sue Clearwater with him. She lands on top of him and giggles, before she hears me gagging.

"Hello Seth. Have a good patrol?" my mother asks in between giggles.

Does she have no idea what type of battle we went through two days ago? Leah almost got squashed by a rogue vampire, Nessie almost died, Jake and Leah fought and then made up, following with them making out, and now she's asking how was patrol? "Not as good as having Charlie's tongue down my throat, I'm sure," I bite out sarcastically.

I know, this isn't my usually happy-self, but I just saw my mom making out with one of my Dad's best friends on the couch I watch cartoons on, eat on, nap on, and lounge on.

My mom rolls her eyes and looks at Charlie and helps him up. "C'mon Charlie, it looks like Seth needs some time to cool off." Charlie looked like he was unable to decide whether or not to go with my mom, or get the hell out of my house (I am a threatening werewolf when I want to be).

I shake my head, if she's happy, then I'm happy. I just wish she wouldn't be so happy on my couch! "Whatever, I'm in my room."

I flop onto my bed and hastily thrust my ear buds in my ears, turning up the volume on my mp3 player, thankfully drowning out all noise.

I wake up and glance at the clock beside my bed, 1:37 PM. Ugh, looks like I missed lunch. Considering what I saw when I came home, I think skipping lunch was a good thing. Rubbing my face, I try to wake myself up so that I can make myself some food. I hear a loud grumble and see that my stomach agrees.

I toss my mp3 player somewhere on my bed and head into the kitchen. Three sandwiches, a frozen pizza, some leftovers, an apple, a couple of oranges, and lots of milk. Yeah, that sounds like a good lunch. I turn into the kitchen and let out a strangled cry.

"WHY?" I cover my eyes. Before me are Jake and Leah getting hot and heavy. Leah's sitting on the counter, where _used_ to I eat, with Jake in between her legs grabbing her hips. Oh dear god, this day could _not_ get worse.

Leah tears herself from Jake long enough to spot me and giggle. Jake continues to kiss her down to her neck and I hear Leah's breathing change into heavy pants. Oh god, I'm going to hurl.

I can't go anywhere in my house without seeing someone in my family make-out with their partner on a once-precious space to me.

I clear my throat _twice_, before I get their attention. I glare at both of them and cross my arms across my chest before I announce with a sniff, "I have official lost my appetite and never want to see any female family members _giggle_ ever again."

I storm out of the kitchen and decide to head over to Embry and Quil's place. I need to be somewhere where I can eat and sleep without having to see anyone get it on, and, apparently, that's no longer at home.

"JAKE!" Leah squeals.

Leaving _now!_

_

* * *

_

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	3. Chapter 3

"_**Gravitation cannot be held responsible for people falling in love. How on earth can you explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological phenomenon as first love? Put your hand on a stove for a minute and it seems like an hour. Sit with that special girl an hour and it seems like a minute. That's relativity." **_**–Albert Einstein**

_

* * *

_

'_Advice' from Quil & A Talk with Embry_

After bolting out of the house, (there are things a little brother just does _not _need to hear), I made it to Embry and Quil's place in ten minutes. They're renting the place from Jared's Uncle Jeb, who just got back together with his wife, and has a "spare house" for them to rent.

I let myself in, (we are family), and make my way into the living room. Both Quil and Embry are concentrating on the TV and I plop myself down on a couch and see what has them so interested.

"_Francine! What are you doing?"_

"_I'm sorry daddy, I didn't mean to lie."_

"_Why didn't you tell me your bike wasn't stolen? I thought you liked it."_

"_Well, the thing is daddy…"_

Arthur? They're watching Arthur? "Seriously?" I ask in disbelief. They both jump, not having noticed that I was there.

Embry quickly finds the remote and changes the channel to some sports channel before spewing out some excuse, "Lost the remote, um, too tired to look for it…"

I roll my eyes and look at Quil, getting ready for his excuse. He looks at me and shrugs. "What can I say? Claire got me hooked. Buster is her favorite," he smiles.

I shake my head and laugh, no wonder Quil imprinted on Claire: he's a kid himself. In a silent agreement, we all turn to the TV and watch sports, pretending that it never happened. As I'm watching the highlights on how the New York Giants slaughtered the Red Skins, Embry clears his throat and asks me, "So, what's up man? Was there a sock on the house doorknob?" he smirks.

Ass. "No, there wasn't any type of warning," I shake my head forlornly.

That seemed to get their attention and they rushed over to my side, "What did you see? What did you _see?!"_ Quil squeals uncontrollably.

After taking in a shaky breath, I look up and whisper, "It was horrible. _Horrible!"_

Embry and Quil start to mother me and rub my back while murmuring things like, "Shh, you're okay, you're okay," and, "Just take deep breaths, okay? Deep breaths," coaxing me to talk.

After a few minutes I tell them everything; how I ran to the Cullen's only to be tortured for information (I had to ham it up or else I would be ridiculed for spilling the beans for, well, ever), the amazing car ride home, which was ruined my catching my mom and Charlie play a completely different version of 'cop and robber,' then stopping off to my room for a nap only to wake up starving, then losing my appetite when seeing Leah and Jake making out on our kitchen counter (where I eat!) across the fridge (where I keep my food!). By the end of it, both of my pack brothers are sitting on the couch processing what I just told them.

"We live in perverted times my friend," Embry announces.

I fervently nod in agreement, "I don't think I can survive seeing another Mom/Charlie or Jake/Leah session of them getting ready to 'do the do.'"

Quil shrugs and suggests a solution. "Well, to avoid another awkward situation, you could always do the old school thing."

We both look at him, waiting for an answer. Understanding that he won't say anything until we ask him, (_jackass),_ I ask, "What?"

He smiles, happy that I'm playing along. "Write them a letter." We look at him like he's lost all his marbles, which he probably has.

He looks at us incredulously. "What? My grandpa said it would work."

I cross my arms over my chest and cock an eyebrow, what is it with him always asking Old Quil for advice? He's _Old Quil_, his advice isn't always sound. He's the guy who said that computers were not the future, and that typewriters would last forever. I shake my head, clearly unimpressed by his plan and ask, "And what exactly am I supposed to say?"

Embry pretends to write a letter and narrates, "'Dear Jake, I would appreciate it if you would refrain from shoving your tongue down my sister's throat in, on, or around anything that I may touch, eat, sleep, or grew up on. Much appreciated. Your buddy, Seth Clearwater.'"

Quil shakes his head annoyed. "That solves nothing."

I nod; that solves nothing at all. Who sends letters anyways? Besides Old Quil and, apparently, Quil.

Embry looks at us and nods before adding onto his narrated letter, "'P.S. If you hurt my sister, after she's done kicking your ass, I'll kill you.' There, it solves everything now."

Quil and I whip pillows at him.

Embry laughs and shakes his head, "Where the hell did we find you, Quil?"

Quil beams. "I was Mrs. Connolly's star pupil and –"

"Pfft, she made you the door greeter," Embry interrupts. "I don't think that job translated into "star pupil." And when did you learn what the word "pupil" meant anyways?"

"Funny story, actually. So I was home and grandpa Quil gave me a Thesaurus for my birthday—yeah, some present. But, it actually came in handy because Justine, Claire's mom called and said that when I'm watching Claire to only watch educational stuff so that she can expand her vocabulary, not that Claire isn't smart. Anyways, after her call, I started to look up some words in the Thesaurus, you know, to use bigger words with Claire-Bear to expand her vocabulary…" Quil ranted. After four minutes, Embry turns the TV back on. Eight minutes later, he's still talking about Claire. If we don't stop him soon, he'll go on, and on, and on, and on all day.

"Quil?" I interrupt.

He looks at me, startled, clearly having forgotten that there are other people here and answers, "Yeah?"

"How the hell does this have anything to do with Jake and my sister?"

Quil blinks a couple times. "Well…" He thinks about it for a couple seconds before saying, "I guess it doesn't." Then he starts back up again on Claire-Bear topics.

This is going to be one long-ass day.

After lunch, we order a couple pizzas (three and a half each, no leftovers), and Quil, thankfully, settles down enough to relax on the couch where, like Claire, he takes his afternoon nap.

"Oh thank god," Embry whisper-exclaims.

I look at him and smile, "I thought he'd never shut up."

He nods. "Yeah, he never does. Did you know that he talks in his sleep?"

I laugh. "No! He does not! That's hilarious."

Embry smiles. "Yeah, except when you're trying to sleep and your super-wolf hearing amplifies every snore, every mumbled sentence…everything."

"How do you deal with it?"

Smirking, Embry says, "I slip him cough medicine in his nightly juice. Just enough to konk him out for a full eight hours. He'll still mumble occasionally, but they aren't full-blown conversations. Plus, I always have a back-up plan: earplugs."

I laugh, quickly stifling it so I don't wake up Quil.

Embry turns down the volume on the TV and leans towards me. "Listen, I get how you're worried about Leah. When my mom started dating, it was tough. Every single guy that came by, I just wanted to beat them, make them know that they can't hurt her; that it's not allowed. That if they ever hurt her, that the next time I see them, they won't survive."

I stare at Embry with respect. We all knew he and his mom were having problems since he phased. He would be gone for hours at a time, patrolling, and Mrs. Call would be worried out of her mind, assuming that Embry was out doing drugs, or worse. It's just the two of them, so trust is a big issue. Since he couldn't go up and tell her, 'Hey mom, the reason that I'm out of the house so often is because I can morph into a gigantic, hairy beast. Don't worry; I don't kill people, just vampires. I'm here to keep you safe. Now, I best be off, I have to patrol the area to ensure your safety. Toodles!' he had to lie. It wasn't until Mom 'accidentally' let it slip to Mrs. Call (She actually drove over to Embry's and said, "Morning Abigail, just thought that you should know our tribe's legends are true and that your son can morph into a wolf. That's the reason he's always sneaking out; he's protecting La Push. Don't be too hard on the boy; it's been very hard on him. Oh, look at the time, I best be off. See you at the next bonfire!" and drove home. When she told me and Leah what she did, we had no choice but to call Jake and Embry so that they could calm down a hysteric Abigail Call) that her son was a wolf that things got better for them.

Embry sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that you need to have a talk with Jake. No need for threats, no violence, just an honest talk. He knows what happened that last time Leah got her heart broken, he knows how hard it was for you, and for Sue to see her like that. Just, talk to him. You know him; you've been inside his head. You know he loves her, you just have to let your fears go about losing Leah and talk to him."

I mull over what Embry said. Am I afraid of losing Leah? I know that after Sam broke her heart that she wasn't the same. She was meaner, crueler, bitter, and upset. Leah's always been sarcastic with her biting comments, but it was different after the whole Sam/Emily triangle. Her comments wouldn't be teasing, but out to intentionally hurt and insult people. There wasn't that glint in her eye when she called me "Doofus," letting me know that she was just having fun. Then we phased and Dad died…I thought that the Old Leah would never come back. Her comments got worse, she lashed out at everybody and anybody, making sure that she hit where it would hurt the most. When Jake made his own pack things got better. Leah's comments weren't as harsh, and the old glint in her eye came back when she would poke fun at us. She began to smile and laugh again, looking like pre-Sam Leah.

Am I afraid of losing the pre-disaster Leah that just came back to us?

_Yes._

But, Jake went through the same thing. He lost Bella, his mom, and both of his sisters who wanted more than what La Push could offer. When Bella got pregnant, they helped each other. They talked and bonded, even though they both thought I didn't notice, talking about their heartbreaks and how they both 'could do _so_ much better' than Isabella Swan-I-like-my-men-cold-dead-and-sparkly-Cullen and Sam Levi-"Oh my god you're done already?"-"That wasn't even two minutes"-"Ow, that's my hair"-"Seriously?"-"Are you done yet, I'm tired"-"That's it?"-I-like-my-women-to-share-the-same-gene-pool-Uley.

He's my Alpha, my buddy. He knows how much Leah means to me, how much I love her (Even though I will vehemently deny it I she asks… It's what we do).

I look over at Embry, (he's a genius), and smile. "You're way too smart to be living with Quil," I tell him.

He sighs and nods, "I know, I know."

"I'm going to talk to him tomorrow," I tell him. "I don't think I can stand to talk to Jake after what I saw today." I cringe at the memory of our poor, defiled kitchen, not to mention our couch!

"Good plan."

I get up and find a pen and search through old flyers for a sheet of paper.

"What are you doing?" Embry asks, not taking his eyes off of the TV.

"Writing a letter," I say just as I find a sheet of paper. Success!

"To who?" Embry asks with a laugh.

"Charlie Swan," I tell him as I begin to write.

_Dear Charlie, _

_I would appreciate it if you would refrain from shoving your tongue down my Mom's throat in, on, or around anything that I may touch, eat, sleep, or grew up on. Much appreciated, _

_- Seth Clearwater_

_P.S. Stay away from my bed at all times._

_

* * *

_

.

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	4. Chapter 4

"_**What's wrong with going and falling in love like a normal person, Leah? Imprinting is just another way of getting your choices taken away from you." – Jacob Black (p. 319, Breaking Dawn)**_

_**"The worst feeling in the world is loving someone, when they don't love you back. Your heart aches every time you see them, knowing no matter how deep you look into their eyes, trying to reach their heart, you never will."**_

* * *

_Good Intentions_

After writing a much needed letter to Charlie, (he defiled my couch!), I head outside and phase to patrol for a couple of hours and try to clear my head.

I think of everything from my Mom and Charlie to Jake and Leah to Leah and Sam. Trying to sort out my feelings, I run. No one else is out tonight; Embry's letting me have some space, Quil is still sleeping, (pretty sure the four bottles of cough medicine we slipped him were a bit much), and Jake and Leah are…busy.

No, I will _not _elaborate on that.

Shaking that disturbing thought from my head, I run, and run, and run. After six hours of non-stop running, (Leah may be the speediest of the family, but I have endurance), I stop outside Embry and Quil' s, (like I was going to go home and hear "Jake! Yes! JA-KE!" and "Leah! LEE-AH! I love you!"), and phase. Throwing my shorts on, I head into the dark house and plop myself down on the couch. Glancing at the clock on the VCR, I see that it's 3:17 AM. I rub my face and think about the thoughts I gathered on my run.

Mom is happy with Charlie. It's been four years since Dad died, and I know that she's lonely. Sure, Leah and I live there, but we're never there. We're always patrolling, hanging out at Embry and Quil's, visiting the Cullens', cliff-diving, hanging out at First Beach: never home. And Charlie, well, Charlie's been alone for twenty-one years. Renee left with Bella when Bella was one, leaving him heartbroken. He adjusted, but he wasn't the same. Then Bella came to live with him. But, even then, she wasn't really there since she was all "please-suck-my-blood-I-love-you" with Edward, so those two years don't count. Then the wedding and her "death" really left him alone. If it weren't for Jake, Charlie would never know what really happened to his daughter, or even know about his granddaughter.

So, basically, they both need someone, and if that someone is each other, I'm fine with that. Charlie was Dad's friend. He loved Dad as much as we did, almost. He'll take care of Mom, treat her right and always be there for her. She needs that. She needs to be taken care of, and to take care of someone. Leah and I are never home, even if we are, all we do is complain about her mothering, and Charlie needs someone to look after him, make him dinner, iron his uniform, basically play the wife. As long as they don't defile any other precious surface in our home, (especially my bed, my dresser, my desk, my door, dear god my walls), we'll be fine.

Which brings me to Leah. And Jake. Jake and Leah. Leah and Jake.

Together. A couple. As disturbing as thinking about them together, especially since the position I last saw them in (AH! My innocent, virginal eyes!) was less than appropriate, they fit. Ew, not like that, but as people, personalities, equals. Where Jake is laid back, Leah is very pushy, yet both are very persistent and will do whatever it takes to get what they want and they won't give up until they get it. Leah has her biting comments and sarcasm, and Jake has his classic, 'Sure, sure' and his own sarcasm. Where Jake is obsessive, Leah is passionate but grounded. She can be negative and harsh, and Jake has always been mellow and cheery. Both have been heartbroken, have lost people they loved, have pined for the one they could never have… They've been through the same thing.

But is that enough? Is sharing some qualities and going through the same experience enough to hold two people together? Is that love?

Before, in Sam's pack, they hated each other. Really hated each other. She would always taunt him about Bella, and he would always flaunt Sam and Emily's "disgustingly sweet and pure" imprint love (his words, not mine). They made each other's lives hell. It got so bad that Jake actually told Leah to jump off a cliff, and Leah told him that Bella would never be his. Jake left to go brood in Canada for months (hardest months of my life; my idol was gone!) and Leah was bitchier than ever, never letting anyone get any peace.

So how did they get to this point? How did they go from hate to love? I saw the friendship part in between, but is it just a strong sense of camaraderie? Do they care?

_Yes. _

Seeing Leah light up when Jake told her he loved her, I saw how much she cared for him. How she loved him as much as, if not more than, she loved Sam.

The real question is: does Jake really love Leah? We heard him say the words, twice (in the clearing and in Embry's memory), but does he mean it? He said that he loved Bella, then it was Nessie, and now Leah? How does this work? Especially since he's now imprinted on Nessie.

Bound to Nessie, but in love with Leah.

I let out a frustrated sigh. I've literally been going through this for hours and still haven't come up with any solution. All I want is for Leah to be happy, safe, and loved. I can love her, I can make her happy, and I can try to keep her safe, but it's not enough. It's not the same as when someone loves you for you, not because you're family.

Rolling over on my side, I take another look at the clock: 5:01AM. I groan, I'm going to be exhausted tomorrow. Clearing my head, I sleep on the couch until I'm woken up by crunching and talking.

Cracking open a tired eye, I see the cause of my awakening. It's Quil. He's sitting in the middle of the living room, eating a huge bowl of Corn Pops while watching Arthur. I groan. Why did Jake and Leah have to use the house for their "nightly activities"? I could be in my bed, snuggled deep in my warm sheets, sleeping until noon. But no, they just had to go and love and want to have sex with each other, leaving me homeless.

"Quil?" I groan.

He turns around, still shoveling spoonfuls of Corn Pops in his mouth, and smiles. "Yeah, Seth, buddy?"

Oh god, he's a _morning person_. Kill me now! Squeezing my eyes shut, I pray that this is all a dream, a sick and twisted dream.

"You okay there, Seth? I have to tell ya, I feel so alive and rejuvenated! After dinner, I don't remember falling asleep, but wow! What a night! I had the best sleep I've had in ages! I'm ready to do anything, right here, right now. Seriously." He leans his back on the front of the couch. "I feel great! And it's such a beautiful morning too! Look outside, Seth! See that? See that! The sun! It's going to be a good day man, a really good day. Oh! Maybe I could take Claire-Bear out and…"

By this point, I've stopped listening to him, making his voice blend into the buzz of the TV in the background. I hear someone clear their throat and see Embry in the kitchen doorway holding two mugs of coffee. I glance at a still babbling Quil, and make my decision get the hell out of here. I get up and make my way around Quil's huge and oblivious frame before stopping in front of Embry. "How can you live with him?"

Embry looks at me curiously before reaching up at his ear and pulling out an earplug. "Sorry, his chatter is just too much in the morning. What did you say?"

I look at the earplug then at Embry and shake my head. "Why wouldn't you _share?"_

He laughs and tells me to drink my coffee. After chugging my coffee, I tell Embry thanks and head home; I'm going to have to go there _sometime._

I stand on the edge of out porch and stare at the door. I know what I have to do. I have to talk to Jake. I have to have a 'What are your intentions with my sister?' conversation. Then I realize I really don't want to know what his intentions are. Like I said before, she's my sister and there are just some things brothers aren't supposed to know. If, by chance, I do find out what his intentions are, I'm pretty sure that no matter how good the doctor is, no amount of therapy can help me.

But, if I don't have the conversation, no matter how painful it is to hear, I'll never know if this is real, if he cares. Taking a deep breath, I prepare myself for any possible couplings in the house. Cautiously, I poke my head inside the house and call, "Leah? Jake? Anyone home?"

"In the kitchen!" Leah calls.

Food. I need food, the kitchen sounds good. Oh my god, I close my eyes and remember that the kitchen is not safe. Some "activities" could be taking place in the kitchen. Jake and Leah have no shame or boundaries.

"Seth, you dweeb, open your eyes," Leah scolds.

"Is it, is it safe?" I ask cautiously. I don't need to be scarred for life before breakfast. Then I'll be hungry, but not want food, always relaying the sickening images in my head… It'd be a mess. A big, fat, starving mess.

She snorts, "Yes it's 'safe.'"

Cautiously, I remove my hands from my eyes, and open one eye. I look around and see Leah, fully clothed, at the stove making eggs and bacon, and Jake at the table, also fully clothed, staring at Leah with a smile on his face.

"Well thank god! Both of you are in a room, fully clothed, and are ten feet apart. I can breathe!" I heave a sigh of relief.

Jake chuckles and makes his way over to Leah. He hugs her from behind and wraps his arms around her waist, while resting his chin on her shoulder. "Just be thankful you weren't here an hour ago," he smirks and Leah grins.

They did, didn't they? Oh, ew! "My ears! They're bleeding!" I bring my hands to my ears, trying to block out the disgusting conversation.

They both laugh at me, and look at me with concern when I don't take my hand off my ears. I don't want to hear any of their conversation, just in case they let anything of their "relationship" slip. There are things a brother just does not need to know, like how "happy" his sister is with her boyfriend.

After we inhale Leah's eggs and bacon, Jake starts to do the dishes while Leah dries.

"Leah."

"Yeah, Seth?"

"Um, Rose wants to talk to you," I tell her quickly. Maybe if I say it quickly, she won't ask questions.

She turns around and traps me with a piercing look. "Why?"

Play it cool, play it cool. She doesn't know, you don't have to let her know! I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. I went over there to play X-Box with Emmett and she wanted to talk to you, you know, about the whole 'I'm going to kill you, you piece of shit, Black!' thing that happened before 'I love you.'"

"Did she say that she wanted me to come over, or call?" she asks as she gets back to drying the dishes.

I make a non-commital noise and Leah sighs and turns to Jake. "I better go see what she wants. I'll be back later, okay?"

Jake nods and kisses her before she leaves. I toss her the Ferrari keys and tell her to thank Rose for me. After she leaves, I take over Leah's job of drying dishes while Jake washes.

I take a deep breath before I start to talk to Jake. "Listen man, we need to talk."

He nods. "I was thinking the same thing."

"Okay, I know you're a good guy, and that my sister loves you, but, I need to know that what you feel for her is real. I can't have you want her one day and then follow the imprint pull back to Nesie the next. This is my sister, I can't just have you toy with her and leave her," I tell him.

I look over and see a serious Jake, staring at me. He shakes his head before answering, "I don't want her Seth, I _need_ her. She's everything to me. Everything. They say that imprinting is finding your "soul mate," but, I don't need a "soul mate." I need a mate, as in a partner, and equal to me in everything, and that's _Leah._ From her mood swings, down to her condescending and biting comments. Because, in the end, I don't need someone chosen for me, I need someone that will choose with me. That will choose to stick by my, to give me her love, to be my wife, my love, my world. Not because some 'force' tells us we have to choose one another, because we choose one another. We choose to love one another unconditionally and thoroughly because we need to be around the one we choose to love and who chooses to love us back with the same amount of passion."

He turns and faces me. "Listen, I know that you want me to ask for your blessing, but I'm not going to ask. We're together, we want to be together, and we'll be together for a damn long time. I'm not going to take the risk of having her in my life, by asking for your 'permission' to date her," he tells me.

I look at him and he stares at me. "I love her, more than anything, Seth. She's the one. The one that matters most, the one that I would do anything for," he smiles at the thought of Leah.

"So I'm not going to ask for permission, all I need is permission from her," he tells me.

I smile at him, (he must really love her), and say, "I know you're not asking for it, but you have my blessing."

He smiles at me before getting back to the dishes. I shake my head and smile. He has good intentions for my sister, after all.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	5. Chapter 5

"_**Then there is the third category, the category of people who need to be constantly before the eyes of the person they love. Their situation is as dangerous as the situation of people in the first category. One day the eyes of their beloved will close, and the room will go dark…**__**" Milan Kundera (**__**The Unbearable Lightness of Being)**_

* * *

_The Weeks of Torturing Questions but No Answers_

After washing and drying the dishes, Jake and I went to the living room to play some Wii.

"Die! Die! _DIE!_ DIE YOU STUPID PIECE OF SHIT! I DID NOT MOVE LEFT! STOP MOVING LEFT! WHY ARE YOU GOING LEFT!" I shout at my brainless Mii.

We're having an intense game of Wii and I have a week of patrol on the line. If I lose, I don't want to think about what Jake will do with that extra chunk of time. It will probably involve my sister… and I'm going to stop thinking now. Focus on the game Seth, focus on the game!

"You are so going down," Jake tells me smugly.

I ignore him and get back trying to focus on the game, which I'm losing by… I look at the scoreboard and blanche. I didn't know that you get a negative score in Wii.

I glare at the TV and try to concentrate. Deep breaths Seth, deep breaths. Just relax, you can do this, there's nothing to it. If Claire can master this, so can you. Okay, now go! Go me, go Mii!

I bring my arm back and swing it forward. Locking my eyes on the screen, I watch my Mii copy my actions. Go. Go! GO! _GO!_

"HA! Yes!" Jake shouts, pumping his fist in the air.

"NOO! YOU STUPID MII!" I yell at the TV screen.

Wii Bowling is a skill I do not posses. I blame the equipment. It must have been tampered with. Jake got a high score, why didn't I? Embry, Quil, or Claire must have touched it, altered the settings. I look down at the controller and examine it, maybe this is the problem; the batteries are faulty. That would explain why my Mii would do the exact opposite of what I want. I would shoot straight, and it would curve to the left.

Jake bowls _another_ strike.

Old Quil was right: sometimes technology is overrated.

"HA! Game over! It's over! Finito! We," he gestures to his Mii character, "are the champions, you," he points at me with a smug smile on his face, "are the losers! So, you'll take my shifts on Friday, Saturday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for this week."

I groan and sink into the couch, trying to block out the victorious chuckles from Jake.

He claps me on the shoulder. "S'okay Seth, not everyone can play Wii. I guess only a select few can play. Maybe you should just play with Claire, that could even it up. Hey! Who knows, maybe she'll let you win!"

I shoot him a look that screams how unimpressed at his "joke" I am.

As I open my mouth to reply with a witty retort, I hear a car door slam and angry footsteps stomp closer and closer to the door. Curious, Jake and I stare at the front door, listening as the footsteps get louder and closer.

Suddenly the door flies open and a very pissed off Leah glares around the room until her eyes set on me. As soon as she sees me, her glare, (if possible), becomes even more deadly. I shrink back.

"Hey Leah, how was the Cullens?" Jake asks with a smile. He's so friggin' happy that she's back, while I'm shitting my pants.

"Why don't you ask Seth?" Leah rounds on me.

Jake furrows his brow, confused. "Why would I ask Seth?"

Then, Leah said the two words that would ruin my chances of staying alive (if she didn't kill me): "They know."

"Who?"

Leah gives him a pointed stare as if saying, "You're really asking that question?"

Jake's face alights with realization. "No! You don't mean-"

"Yeah"

He looks at me. "And he-"

Leah folds her arms and glares at me. "Yeah, he did."

Jake turns around and glares at me, raising his eyebrow asking "Is it true?"

Unable to look at either one in the eye, I look at everything in the room, nothing being able to hold my attention for more than a few seconds. I chuckle nervously and shift from side to side.

"Heh, heh. So, what's up, guys?" I ask, attempting to casual.

"SETH!" they both yell.

Oh yeah, I'm dead.

* * *

Due to excessive force and my will to live, I have relinquished all my energies in fighting back and just decided, (for the sake of my health), to be passive.

We made an agreement. I had to apologize, take both Jake and Leah's patrols, wash Jake's car, do Leah's chores, make dinner for a week, run any errands Leah or Jake may need, and, (this part of the arrangement I do not understand), help out with the Cullens. Anything they need; a shopping partner, (by which I mean a bag carrier), for Alice, a mirror-holder/sound board, (she has may dog jokes that she likes to use on Jake), for Rosalie, an opponent for Emmett, (X-box, Guitar Hero, Play Station, Uno, all games really), a calming presence for Jasper, (he likes to read the paper in peace), a "CPR dummy" for Carlisle, (he'd rather be all 'Okay, cough' and 'Does it hurt here?' with Leah, but it's Leah…), a cooking buddy with Esmee, (Okay, that one's for me. I admit it. I love her cooking and swapping some recipes would be amazing, especially since I have to cook dinner for a whole week), and do nothing for Edward, Bella, or Nessie.

Yeah, Leah's still a bit bitter with Bella for the whole "I love you, but only as a friend" crap that Bella put Jake through, and the imprinting thing with Nessie. And Edward, well, neither one like him very much with the whole reading minds thing and the invasion of privacy. Personally, I think he's a great guy, a tad old fashioned and sometimes he's a complete jackass, (case and point with the torturing and laughing he and his family did), but all in all, he's not that bad.

That's my punishment for telling the Cullens. I must serve Jake and Leah, and the Cullens until they, (by they I mean Jake and Leah), feel like I've learned my lesson.

It's been a week of this crap and I'm still running errands for my "Oh so Mighty" Alpha and Beta.

"SETH! OH SETH! I NEED YOU TO PICK ME UP SOME-" Leah called in a sig-song voice.

"YEAH! I'M COMING! I'm coming," I call back. I'm so sick of this.

"SETH!" Leah growls.

"Coming!" I haul ass downstairs. I've been late to her doling up orders, been there. Seen that. Got the scars. Don't need new ones.

* * *

It's been 27 days since they got together, and 13 days since I've been named Jake, Leah, and the Cullens' personal slave, and something is different.

I've been getting fewer orders from Jake and Leah, I no longer have their patrols, Leah's heating up frozen dinners for herself, and everything in the house is just _off._

I don't know how to explain it, but they're both different. Okay, well them getting together was 'different', a good 'different' but that's not the different I'm talking about. Oh no, this is an awkward "We know what changed but we're not going to tell you, even though we're barely talking to each other, because you're not in our super-secret club" different. It's creeping me out.

I'll wake up, and Leah will already be up and eating breakfast. Then, after eating, she'll just go out. Where? I have no idea.

And when Jake comes over, he's never around when Leah is. It's like I'm dealing with two Bellas post Edward-abandonment. They don't really act like themselves.

I made a comment to Leah and all she did was ask me to pass the plum sauce. Last time this happened was when Sam broke up with her. She got all quiet and withdrawn, wouldn't say anything for weeks. I got so fed up I yelled at her to grow up and get over Sam Uley. In hindsight, that was probably the stupidest thing I've ever yelled at her for. Anyways, it got her pissed. So pissed that she yelled, and I yelled, and we got angrier, and then everything exploded.

So, am I scared? Psh, no.

I'm fucking _terrified._

Which is why this time, I will switch targets. I'm going after Jake. I need to know what's going on! Where is he going? Where is Leah going? Why aren't they going together? _Are_ they going together? If so, what are they doing (please don't say each other or I will have to smack Quil for saying that line)? Did he hurt her? Did they break up? Is he going back to Nessie? Does he not want to break the imprint anymore?

I have all these questions, (literally; I wrote them down in my old Algebra notebook), and no answers.

I check my watch, 1:29PM. Jake should be here in 5, 4, 3, 2- I hear our front door open and a grunt signaling Jake's arrival. He shuffles into the living room and plops down on the couch before staring at the TV.

That wouldn't bother me as much if the TV was actually on. This, him staring at the TV like Eli Manning was going to personally thank him for being such a great werewolf by protecting his family and friends, this is just disturbing.

He's not even blinking.

What the hell? Where is the old Jake that I looked up to? The happy, mellow, always-has-a-sunny-disposition Jake that is my Alpha? This "person" on my couch is nothing like him. He's defeated, withdrawn, it's not normal.

"Who the hell are you?" I ask him.

He looks up at me with a confused before seeing the look I'm giving him. Jake lets out a sigh and says, "It's nothing Seth."

"Bull. Spill it, or I'll have the Cullens beat it out of you," I threaten him.

He laughs a bitter laugh, "Whose fault do you think this whole mess is? Whose house do you think I've been running over to? You want answers, Seth?"

I nod and stare at his shaking frame and notice how tired he looks. There are circles under his eyes, which are completely bloodshot, he looks, (and smells), like he hasn't had a shower in days… he looks like shit.

What happened to him? What has he been doing?

"Well so do I!" he yells.

And what are the Cullens not telling him?

* * *

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	6. Chapter 6

**Jake's POV**

_**"Missing someone feels like the earth crumbles beneath you - you are falling with nothing to grab, and it comes when you don't expect it, and it never stops coming."**_

* * *

_Out on Sick Leave?_

_The Thoughts of a Worried Boyfriend_

I have no idea what is going on with my girlfriend.

She hasn't been talking to me, looking at me, hell, she hasn't even emailed me, (Yes, I _have_ been sitting at the computer hitting the 'Refresh' button every ten minutes, convinced that she would at least _email_ me if she was upset about something), for a week. But, I let it go, thinking that if I just give her some space that she'll come back and that everything will be fine.

It's been a week since then.

Apparently, I was wrong.

"Jake, what the hell happened?" Seth asks me.

I shake my head and let out a bitter laugh. "If I had any idea, do you really think I'd be here with you right now?" I ask, raising an eyebrow.

"Right," he nods.

"I just don't understand," I sigh exasperatedly. "We were happy! God, we were happy and then she went to the Cullens' last week and it's like she flipped a switch!"

I look at a confused Seth and continue, "A couple days after she went to the Bat Cave and found out that you spilled the beans, she went back because Blondie wanted another 'girl talk.' She was there for an hour, just one hour, and she came back a completely different person."

I look at Seth dead in the eye and try to tell him how changed she was. "She wouldn't talk to me for a couple days, until I came over. When I was there, she couldn't look at me. She looked so anxious and scared. I tried to hug her but that just made it worse."

Shaking my head, I tell Seth to phase and I replay what happened that day.

**Flashback**

_It's been about a month since Leah and I have exchanged our 'I love yous' and things have been great. We've fought a lot; she bitched, I pissed her off, she bitched some more, then to shut her up, we made out. But that's the thing with our relationship- it's real. There isn't some supernatural pull telling me to love her, telling me to protect her. I do that because I love her, because I choose to, because I __want__ to._

_For the past week Leah has been blowing me off and skipping her patrol duties claiming them as "sick days." Sick days, really? C'mon, we're werewolves, our temperatures run so high that any infection that gets close to us would be toast. She's avoiding me, I know it. The only question is: __why?_

_Which brings me here, the front porch of the Clearwater home, ready to kick my girlfriend's ass. Enough is enough, time for her to face the music. Whatever has been bothering her, she needs to tell me about it. Now. _

_Knowing Leah, there's going to be a fight. The girl doesn't like anybody to see her as weak, so she never talks about her problems or asks for help. Needless to say, she'll kick my ass when I ask her if she's okay and needs any help. Luckily, I invested in first-aid kits all around La Push. One in a bush here, an underbrush there, just in case. Leah's anger is unpredictable, just about anything can set her off, so we have to be prepared. _

_I knock on the door and take a couple steps back. Sure, I'm the Alpha, have the capability to morph into a giant wolf, and I'm her boyfriend, but this isn't a normal girl and we're not in a normal relationship. This is an emotionally unstable, angry, strong, stubborn, hot as hell woman we're talking about here. But, I'm not scared of her. Psh no, all these precautions are for Billy. The man wants grandkids one day, (Paul's kids don't count), and who am I to deny him that?_

_I hear quick and light footsteps come to the door: Leah. She should be here in five, four, three, two—"Yeah?" Leah snaps in an anxious tone as she's opening the door. Ah, my loving girlfriend._

"_You missed your shift," I tell her, folding my arms. Two can play at this game. _

_She steps away from the door and rolls her eyes. "I told you I couldn't make it."_

_I look at her. Nothing wrong with her legs (lean, long, and tan. Oh no, nothing wrong at all!), arms look fine (Nice and smooth…so soft), head is attached along with her scowl (I thought I got rid of that scowl… But, still, her lips. So plump, and warm, and kissable…). She looks fine, more than fine, Leah looks hot! She looks good enough for patrol. Well, I'd like to see if she's up for __more__ than patrol…_

"_Yeah, you're 'sick.' Listen, just take your little blue pill like the doctor told you and get your furry ass out on patrol," I tell her._

_She smirks, although it seems off somehow, as she pulls something out of her pocket. "Ah, ah, ah, I don't think so," she says in a singsong voice._

_She hands me the paper. What is this? I read it quickly and shake my head. Leah got a doctors note. She actually got Carlisle to give her a doctor's note to excuse her from patrols! What the hell is wrong with her anyways? I re-read the note to see if it said anything specific._

"_Jacob, _

_Please excuse Leah from running patrols. Due to the condition that she is in, she will be unable to phase for the time being. It would be in her best interest if she would relax and try not to do anything to aggravate the state she's in. Thank you for your co-operation._

_Sincerely, _

_Doctor Carlisle Cullen."_

_Condition, what 'condition'? Is she okay? Is it bad? It must be bad if it affects a werewolf. _

_I look at her, waving the note. "What does he mean by 'condition'?" I ask. "Will you be able to get back to patrolling soon?" If she can run patrols then her 'condition' must not be that bad. Right?_

_Sighing, Leah takes the note back and walks inside. I follow, eager for an answer. She's not dying? I mean, this is Leah Clearwater we're talking about; she __can't__ die. It's simply not an option. She needs to stay and be here to bitch and moan until we're old and gray._

"_Lee, are you okay?" I move closer, going to hug her._

"_Don't touch me!" She jumps away from me._

_I stare at her, dumbstruck. Don't touch her? I want to touch her, to hold her. She looks so lost and scared. I want to help her, protect her. Why won't she let me?_

_I raise my hands in surrender and take a couple steps back and try to cover up the hurt and shock on my face. As I'm walking back, she seems to relax, if only slightly._

_She lets out a shaky sigh. "We don't know what's going on."_

_We?_

"_The Cullens think it's some sort of parasite," she says, waving her hand in the air as if brushing off the idea like it was something you hear everyday._

_The Cullens? She went to the Cullens instead of me with a problem? A problem I didn't even know she had. What isn't she telling me? And what does she mean 'parasite'? Like a tapeworm? Can werewolves even get tapeworms? Considering how much we eat it's possible._

_She starts to pace. "Alice and Edward said that it will eventually be removed." A worried look comes across her face before she shakes her head. "They just don't know when."_

_Removed? As in surgery? Can a tapeworm really do that much damage?_

_I furrow my brow and ask in a rush, "How do they know all this? Do they know if you're going to be okay? Why hasn't anyone else got this 'parasite'? How did you get this? __Where__ did you get this thing?"_

_Leah glares at me. "Where did I get this __thing __from?" she asks in a cold tone._

_I nod. If my Leah got a tapeworm, I want to know from where or from whom she got it. When I get my hands on them…_

_Leah stands up and makes her way over to me. "I. Got. This. __Thing__. From. __You__." She says each word with such venom as she punctuates each word with a poke to my chest._

_Me?__ When the hell did I give her this thing?_

"_Me?" I ask, very confused._

"_Yes, you! Now I have to go through this! Because you, Mr. Alpha I-can-make-a-new-pack-to-protect-mutant-baby-then-imprint-on-mutant-baby-only-to-later-break-imprint-with-freaky-Spawn had to come along fuck me up! Like I wasn't already a freak among freaks, but now I have something inside me and we have no idea what it is. Alice is freaked out and the fact that she can __see__ me is freaking me out. I have no idea what's going on and neither do they, and you coming over to my house and asking me questions that I have no answers to is not helping!" she shrieks._

_I'm so confused. Can a tapeworm give you emotional instability? I think I saw something like that on an episode of 'House.' I should ask the guys if they saw that episode, or read my biology textbook. On second thought, I'll watch the 'House' seasons. If it's not a tapeworm, maybe Dr. Greg House can tell me what the hell is wrong with Leah._

"_Lee." I slowly make my way over to her to comfort her. To tell her that everything will be all right, that I'm here for her…but she backs away. _

"_Just go. Please, go," she whispers, hugging herself._

_I kiss her on the forehead, (which she stiffly accepts), and do as she asked._

**End Flashback**

'_So I've been running back and forth for the past week,'_ I tell Seth.

'_Going to the Cullens and demanding answers, answers that they still won't give me, trying to talk to find out what's going on. When I'm not there, I'm here with you hoping that Leah will come home,'_ I tell him with a whine.

'_What do you want to do?'_ he asks.

I start to pace. What do I want to do?

There are a lot of things that I want to do in regards to Leah.

I want to lie down on the couch with Leah and watch re-runs of some comedy we both hate, and relax. I want to hold her and make her laugh. I want to see her smile, to see her eyes dance when we banter. I want to share a house, a life, my name, with Leah. I want to do everything with her.

But I can't have any of that right now. Not until we talk.

So what do I want? I want to talk to Leah. I want to find out what's scaring her and just hug her and tell her it will be all right. I want to be able to be there for her, I want her to trust me and tell me what's going on.

'_I want to get answers.' _

'_And how are you going to get those?'_ Seth asks with sarcastic undertones as he pictures me waltzing up to the Cullen manor in a suit and tie asking if they have a minute to fill out a short questionnaire on 'What the hell is going on with Leah.'

Rolling my eyes at his thought, I give him a wolfy smirk before I tell him, _'I'm not.'_

'_You're not?'_

I shake my head_. 'You're going to have a little chat with Alice.'_

'_Alice?'_ Seth asks.

'_Yeah, Alice. The little Pixie knows something.'_ I replay Leah's rant in my head: _"__Alice is freaked out, and the fact that she can __see__ me is freaking me out.__"_

'_You think that has something to do with what's happening to Leah?'_ Seth asks.

'_Well, you're going to go and figure that out, aren't ya?'_

'_I guess I am,'_ he says before he runs to the Cullens'.

I phase back and throw on my cutoffs before heading back inside. Plopping myself onto the couch I wait, (again), for answers. I start to bounce my leg up and down, letting what happened run through my mind.

Alice can _see_ Leah. She can _see __Leah_. Why can she see Leah?

We're wolves; she isn't supposed to be able to see us. It has something that has to do with the fact our phasing is unpredictable, an emotional trigger, something that the little Pixie can't predict. The fact that she can see Leah is scaring the crap out of me.

Is she okay? Does something happen to her? How is it my fault? Will she be alright?

Shaking my head, I try to clear all of the questions from my mind. Agonizing over questions that I don't have answers to won't help me.

I look at the clock and count the minutes until Seth can come back with answers.

One minute until I know what's going on with Leah.

Two minutes until I know she's okay.

Three minutes until she's here with me again.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	7. Chapter 7

**Leah's POV**

**(Picks up at Chapter 4)**

_Many Thoughts of a Freaked out Girlfriend_

"Leah?" Seth asks.

"Yeah, Seth?"

"Um, Rose wants to talk to you," he rushes out, avoiding eye contact.

I spin around and lock eyes with him, trying to see what the little dweeb is hiding, and ask, "Why?"

He takes in a deep breath before shrugging his shoulders. "I don't know. I went over there to play X-Box with Emmett and she wanted to talk to you, you know, about the whole 'I'm going to kill you, you piece of shit, Black!' thing that happened before 'I love you.'"

I roll my eyes; of course he went over there to play video games with Emmett. How old is he, twelve? My brother would sit in front of the TV all day and play video games if it was an option.

"Did she say that she wanted me to come over, or call?" I ask him, getting back to the dishes.

Rose and I started to meet at the border to talk ever since the whole "Renesmee imprint" thing happened. I was a _tad_ angry about the whole imprinting thing and took out my frustration on a tree instead of beating the Spawn or its mother.

I know; I'm very responsible.

Well, as I was beating the tree, dear old Rosie came stomping through the forest growling about how the "Stupid mutt," (who I assumed was Jacob), was bossing her around about how to take care of a baby, (and then I _knew_ it was Jacob), when she's older than his father and "knows" how to cradle a baby. She noticed me yelling, "It's not fair! Stupid Spawn! He shouldn't have imprinted on her!" while I was making woodchips, and we talked. Okay, well we didn't really talk. We mostly just broke trees and cursed Jacob and his imprinting.

Every time we got pissed off, we would go to that little clearing and just break some trees. After a while, we stopped breaking trees and just talked. And it wasn't the "Hi, my name is Leah and I've been royally fucked over in life here's my story," talk. It was real. We sat there, and just blurted out our biggest pet peeves and annoyances, (which meant bitching about everything wrong with us being hot women with crappy immortal lives). Most of the time, we had a lot of the same problems. Rose wants to be able to get pregnant, have a baby, make a real family; to have a normal _human _experience. It's the same for me. I want to be able to choose who I give my heart to, who I want to have, (and actually be able to have), a family with, and to not be afraid that it will all be erased with one look into someone's eyes.

I'm broken from my reverie by Seth's grunt. Realizing that I'm not going to get a straight answer, I sigh. I'm going to have to drive over to the house and see all the other Cullens, (which means I'm going to have to see the Mr. I-don't-believe-in-privacy-or-condoms and his wife Little Miss Trips-over-everything), before I actually see Rose. I turn to Jake and give him a small smile. "I better go see what she wants. I'll be back later, okay?"

He smiles and leans in to kiss my forehead and I close my eyes at the contact. God, I love this man. Giving him another warm smile, I start to head out only to be stopped by Seth tossing me the keys to Rose's baby.

I shout out a, "Will do!" as he tells me to thank Rose for letting him borrow the car.

Getting into the car, I slam down on the accelerator and make it to the Bat Cave in ten minutes. I hop out of the car and am greeted by a very cold, sickly sweet smelling, bouncing Cullen.

"Oh my goodness, _Leah!_ Edward heard you coming and I wanted to see you, but he told me to stay inside and wait for you to drive up. But I'm just so happy and excited! I've wanted to match you up for a while, but everyone told me not to, said that I have to let things 'run its course.' So I stood outside waiting for you— you drive slowly by the way—and I just couldn't wait until you drove up. And now you're here, and we can talk!" Alice rambles.

"Um, Alice?"

She stops mid-sentence and looks at me with a smile, "Yes, Leah?"

Scratching my neck I ask, "Where's Rose?"

"Oh," her face falls for a second before she answers, "she's up in her room. I can take you, if you want."

"Okay, sure," I tell her. In my defense, their house is huge and it's not as if she'll talk the _whole_ time.

She claps and jumps up and down. "Yay! Okay, follow me!"

Alice drags me into the house and runs me upstairs to where I presume is Rose and Emmett's room. Sure enough, we open the door and I'm choked by cold arms and blonde hair.

"Nice to see you too, Rose," I gasp.

She lets me go, holding me by my shoulders, and glares. "Don't you ever scare the shit out of me like that ever again! You may be a bitch, but you're _my_ bitch, okay? I don't want to be sitting here not knowing if you're busy killing the Mutt or if he's burying your bones."

I smile at Rose, and scoff, "Like I would let him."

She smiles. "Who knows? I hear you've been going soft on us."

I give her a pointed look. "Excuse me? Who just went all Momma Leech on me? 'Don't you ever do that to me again!'" I mimic.

She glares at me before saying in a cold voice, "Forgive me for caring."

"Aw, is Wittle Rosie-Posie upset?" I ask in a baby voice. I look at her with a small smile on my lips and tell her, "You know you're my favorite leech, right?"

A small smile plays on her lips as she sighs. "I do smell better than the rest of my family."

"Hey!" Alice, (who I had no idea was still in the room), pouted.

"Don't be like that, you two. You both smell equally as disgusting," I tell them with a smug smile on my face.

"Look who's talking," Rose defends. "You smell worse than usual."

I give her a questioning look, "Worse?"

Alice nods. "Yes, you're smell is more…" she searches for the word, "pungent."

Rose agrees. "It's more of a 'wolfy' smell. The only person who I know that smells _this_ bad is Jacob," she says with a sly smile.

Alice returns Rose's smile and nods. "It's odd that they smell so similar, isn't it?"

Rose nods as she and Alice stalk closer towards me. "Oh yes, considering how livid they were with each other, I would have thought that she wouldn't smell like him at all. She would've wanted to shower after she fought with the Mutt, not wanting to have to smell him all the time."

Alice smirks, "And yet, her smell is combined with his, his still lingering a day _after _their argument. Odd."

"Do you think that something happened, Alice?" Rose asks her sister with mock concern.

Alice furrows her brows in fake concentration. "If something did, Leah would have told us. Right, Leah?"

They both turn and look at me expectantly. I shrug my shoulders, trying to act casual. "Of course, you're my friends."

Alice bounces over to me and grabs my arm. "So, you would tell us if you and Jake, for example, went out on a date?"

I shrug myself out of her cold grasp and walk around the room and mutter a, "Sure, sure."

Rose and Alice's smiles grow into full-blown smirks. I close my eyes and prepare for the onslaught. I just used Jake's signature line; they're going to read into that way too much.

"Hanging out with Jake lately?" Rose asks.

"We're pack mates, not to mention I'm his Beta, so yeah, we talk," I brush off the question.

"Talk to him lately?" Alice asks.

Losing my patience, I snap at her, "Yes. There was yelling involved."

Well, that's not a total lie. I did see Jake, there was some yelling involved, but neither of us were mad or hurt. Quite the opposite really. I smile at the memory of this morning, and last night, and yesterday afternoon, (twice).

"I'm sure there was," Rose says in a condescending tone.

Damn. She doesn't believe me. What the hell is wrong with these people? If I tell them that nothing happened, they should damn well believe it! Even if it is a lie!

But I'm not lying. Nothing is going on. We're having some fun. Sure we may love each other, but it's no big deal. Right?

Right.

And so I tell them that. "There is nothing going on between Jake and me!" I shout. I stand stock still, noticing how fake that sentence sounds even to my own ears. Damn, nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

I sigh and decide to just tell them _something_ to get them off my back. "Fine. Something happened, it was nice, let's move on," I grind out.

"How nice was this 'something'?" Rose asks, skeptical.

Alice bounces up and down and asks, "Did he kiss you? Profess his love to you?"

Rose smirks, "Both?"

I look at them and see it in their eyes. The fuckers know, which means everyone else in the house knows.

The only person who could have told them was… Jake.

I'm going to kill him. I don't care if he's the Alpha of La Push, or my boyfriend, or that I love him, or that Seth adores him, or that he has an imprint whose mother would be _crushed _if I hurt him in any way. I'm going to kill him.

What the hell! You do not go and tell everyone about your relationship without telling your partner! Especially if said partner is not ready to go on and on about how in fucking love you are! There are boundaries, especially dealing with relationships. These boundaries help keep your friends out of your relationship until you are ready to tell them! Until you are sure that he will not leave you when his "soul mate" grows up and looks like a god damned model, leaving you in a crying, blubbering mess in the corner, wishing that he would come back. You wait until you know!

God! Is he an idiot?

I barely notice the violent tremors rocking through me, the red haze clouding my vision, and don't even recognize Rose and Alice talking, pleading with me to calm down. I ignore them and concentrate on making it out of the house and killing Jake. He was not supposed to do this.

"Lee, calm down," Rose orders.

She's right. I need to be calm and have a clear head to be able to effectively kick someone's ass absolutely thoroughly.

Taking a couple deep breaths, I finally calm down. "Okay, okay, just tell me how you know," I order.

I'm not sure if Jake told either Bella-fail-at-life, Ed-I-wanna-rape-your-mind-without-warning, or Re-name-me-please about what happened. If he told Re-name-me-please, she would tell her parents, who would tell their respective besties, (for Bella-fail-at-life it would be the Pixie and for Ed-I-wanna-rape-your-mind-without-warning his BFFL would be… damn, it would have to be his dear old wifey), who would tell their spouse, who would tell their bestie, who would tell their spouse, who would tell their bestie who would already know. Then, the undead gossip bitches that they are, would talk about it with the rest of the family.

And eventually my family—more specifically, the pack.

Who will tell my mother.

_Fuckers._

Now I really need to know who told them. If Jake let it slip, then who knows how many people in the pack know. I look at Rose imploringly, begging her to tell me. I need to know who told, I need to know for sure if it was Jake.

She surrenders and nods, "Okay, I'll tell you."

I let out a sigh of relief and look at both Rose and Alice expectantly. Alice shifts nervously while Rose clears her throat awkwardly a few times before they just stand there in silence. Getting impatient, I start to bitch, "Well, when exactly are you going to tell me? Huh?"

Rose let's out her classic 'I'm pissed off and it's all your fault' huff before she looks at Alice, giving her the go ahead.

"Now you have to remember that he was under a lot of pressure. Everyone here was worried about you guys. Jasper said that your emotions were angrier and more violent than when you phase unexpectedly, and Edward said your thoughts were very aggressive and vicious. So, naturally when you didn't call we suspected the worst and started to think of ways that we could find out what happened," Alice rushes out as she paces the length of the room.

Her voice increases in pitch and speed as she continues, her voice soon turning into an indistinguishable hum. Ignoring both my and Rose's obvious annoyance at her faster-than-a-vamp-on-Speed speed-talking.

"What the hell is she saying?" I hiss at Rose.

Rose hisses something at Alice whose speech increases in speed again. Well what the fuck! I thought they were going to tell me! "Who fucking told you?!" I shout.

Sick of Alice's rant and my impatience, Rose shouts, "SETH! SETH CLEARWATER IS THE ONE WHO TOLD US!" I stand stock still, soaking in the information. The little shit spied on me and Jake and then ran over here like little Boy Wonder and opened his big fat freaking trap.

He is _so_ dead.

"Damn, Alice," Rose grinds out. "If you wanted me to tell her, you should have fucking said instead of throwing me under the bus."

Alice merely shrugs. "I panicked."

They look at my shaking frame and back away, afraid that I might phase. Considering how pissed off at my brother I am, it's highly fucking likely that I might.

Seth and the Cullens know.

Oh god, Seth knows. He can tell the pack, or worse, Mom. If Mom knows then everyone else on the rez will know (eventually).

I need to keep him quiet.

Calming down, I start to pace and think of a plan of attack. Help, I'll definitely need some help. Judging by the happy-go -lucky faces of Alice and Rose, I'm doubting that they would want to help me shoot the messenger. Hell, they probably want to throw a party for the messenger.

Okay, that only leaves Jake.

Two against one fight. One of the two has the ability to Alpha Command and shut the messenger up just by his voice and a well structured sentence yeah, our outlook looks good.

Now, to shut up the Cullens…

Blackmail won't work on them, neither will asking them nicely, they're enjoying this too much. Especially Emmett. Ugh, how can I spin this?

"Lee?" Rose asks in a hesitant voice.

I stop mid pace and turn to look at her. Why should I agonize over what to do when I can just ask them and get it over with? "What do you want?" I ask in a business-like tone.

"Want? What do you mean?" Alice asks.

"What do you want so that you'll keep what's going on between Jake and I quiet?"

Alice and Rose look at each other and share a smile. Oh shit. They didn't want anything, did they?

Stupid Clearwater. Now I'm going to have to be their little fucking pet and do whatever they ask just so that they can keep this quiet until Jake and I are ready to let people know.

I am going to fucking torture and murder Seth.

* * *

After about twenty minutes, (which I think is now my personal best at making Seth go belly up and surrender), Seth agrees to do anything we want. Anything.

So, Jake and I milk it.

Seth has to apologize, take both of our patrols, wash Jake's car, do my chores, make dinner for a week, (ha-ha, take that Mom!), run any errands that Jake or I may need, and, (to keep my end of the Cullens' agreement- cough blackmail cough- and keep them quiet), help out with the Cullens. He will be anything they need.

"A shopping partner, by which I mean a bag carrier for Alice, a mirror-holder/sound board for Rose's dog jokes she'll want to use on Jake, an opponent for Emmett when he plays X-box, Guitar Hero, Play Station, Uno, all games really, a calming presence for Jasper since he likes to read the paper in peace, a "CPR dummy" for Carlisle, and a Susie-Homemaker buddy for Esme," I list off to Seth.

"You got that?" he nods.

"What about Edward, Bella or Nessie?" he asks.

I stiffen and shake my head, "Do nothing for Bella-Bitch, the Mind Rapist, or Re-name me." I feel Jake's hand on my shoulder, calming me.

Taking I deep breath, I continue, "This is your punishment for spying on me and Jake and then blabbing to the Cullens. You will do this until we," I look at Jake who smiles at me, "feel like you've learned your lesson. Understood?"

He just nods.

Excellent. My own personal slave. I love being an older sister.

* * *

It's been a week of having Seth as my personal slave and I must say, I do enjoy the pampering that comes with it. All I have to do is shout at Seth and he comes running down, ready to do my bidding. It's really funny to see him trip over himself trying to be on time. who knew that when you beat the snot out of the kid one time that he'd run like his life depended on it to get to you whenever you call?

Like right now, I'm starving. Literally, starving. Jake was just over and between the two of us snacking, there really isn't much left in the fridge.

Like fudgesicles. I really want some fudgesicles. And pickles. Lots and lots of pickles.

Hey, the werewolf stomach has craved worse before. Like last month with Quil, the guy really, really wanted some chicken nuggets covered in chocolate sauce. Oh, and one time, Embry was "in love with" having nachos and pudding. Together.

I think my request is pretty tame.

Lying back on the couch, I feel like a quick cat nap. Jake has really been wearing me out and while Seth is out, I'll just relax and sleep for a bit. Wanting to annoy as much as get him off his ass, I call out to Seth in a sing-song voice, "SETH! OH SETH! I NEED YOU TO PICK ME UP SOME-"

"YEAH! I'M COMING! I'm coming," I hear his annoyed call back.

I hear him mumble and shuffle his feet around in his room and I start to get annoyed. I'm tired, hungry, and he's supposed to be my personal slave. A personal slave who's supposed to come when I call. "SETH!" I growl.

"Coming!" I hear him rush downstairs and I smirk. I really love the power I have right now.

Seth stands in front of me with a pad of paper and a pen and takes down my order like a pro. After he leaves for the supermarket, I snuggle back into the couch, seeking for the warmth of Jake. Stupid patrol. Why couldn't he just ditch like I did?

Grumbling about how stupid it is that Embry and Quil need to "relax and have a day off of patrol," I turn on the TV and flip through channels. Nothing is on during the day, and I mean nothing. It's all chick flicks and soap operas and no one wants to watch that. So I take a nap. I don't hear Seth come back home and put away the food, go back to his room, shut the door, and stay in there until patrol. Nor do I hear Jake come inside after his round of patrol.

I wake up on Jake's lap, his hands brushing through my hair. Mmm, that feels nice. I stare up at him and smile, "Hey."

"Hey," he smiles.

"How was patrol?"

He shrugs, "The usual."

"Very boring and pointless?" I smirk.

He nods before kissing me. We return our attention to the TV and I spare a glance to the clock on the VCR. It's 7:44PM and Seth is on patrol. I listen for Mom and figure that she's spending the night with Charlie. Again.

Hey, it's fine with me. Just means that Jake and I have more alone time. Jake shifts and lies down on the couch with me, spooning me from behind. He flips channels until he finds some stupid chick flick, where he stops and stares at the screen, watching the movie until I nudge him with my elbow.

I give an impatient grunt until he starts to flip through the channels again. He starts to flip through them very quickly, being a jackass and not staying on a channel long enough for me to see what's on-hey! Hostel's on! Cool. Jake seems to think the same since he stays on the channel. We start watching the movie and I laugh as the plot progresses. Silly teens, don't you know that when someone offers you to crash at Slovakian hostel full of American-loving, promiscuous women that you're _not _supposed to go? Silly boys.

Jake grabs some food from the kitchen and I pig out and eat everything that Seth brought this afternoon. I devour the pickles first and then break out the fudgesicles. I'm on my fourth fudgesicle when I start to feel sick to my stomach. After twenty pickles, five hot pockets, two sandwiches, three slices of pizza and four fudgesicles, you'd feel pretty sick to your stomach too.

I lean back into the couch and rub my stomach, hoping that the flip-flopping will stop. It starts to get a bit better until things take a turn for our American travelers in Hostel. Suddenly, I start to feel a bit squeamish and am instantly regretting eating the fudgesicles only a half hour after the hot pockets. You should never mix hot and cold food items in one sitting. They don't mix.

I hold it in until the eye scene. I usually laugh at that scene when we see the girl's eyeball sagging from the nerves after she'd met the unfortunate end of a blowtorch. The guy just runs around trying to figure out what to do and then decides to just cut it off! First time I saw it, I was shaking my head in utter disbelief and shame. Then I started to laugh, because really, who cuts off an eyeball? The oozing puss was really just the cherry on top of the whole thing. God, that was funny. And the way he reacts to it! Cringing in disgust and regret. Ha! Priceless.

Yeah, I usually have a good time with that scene, but now, I feel sick. Like really sick.

Jake notices my squirming and puts his arm around me, rubbing up and down my arm, trying to comfort me.

Oh God, the puss! Look at the puss! It's just sliding down her mangled face. I don't know when it happens but one minute I'm sitting in front of the TV and the next I'm hailing the porcelain god, looking at the myriad of colors in the toilet. Man I really need to chew my food better.

"Hey, you okay? I thought you liked that sort of stuff," he rubs my back.

I nod, "I do." I hunch over and heave again, "I really shouldn't have ate all those fudgesicles after all those hot pockets," I shake my head.

Jake laughs and hands me a cup of water before sweeping my hair back and kissing my forehead. "Better?"

I close my eyes and see if I'm going to throw up again. "I think I'm good, for now."

"Good."

I brush my teeth and open the window in the bathroom to air it out before I meet Jake in my room.

"Fudgesicles and hot pockets are evil," I inform him with a huff, climbing into bed.

"Mhm, you're just pissed that you blew you chunks because of the movie," he says with a smug smile.

I snuggle up to him and smack his arm, "Shut up."

I lie down on his chest and hear him laugh, "Yes, dear."

* * *

We've been doing this for about two weeks, him coming over here after patrols, just hanging out. We'll eat, kiss, watch TV, kiss some more, and then go to bed. Some nights when I can't sleep and Jake isn't here, I'll get up and go over to his place to eat food and just sleep over.

It's been pretty good so far. No one besides Seth, the Cullens, Jake, and myself know about Jake and I, so no one's been pestering us about… well, us.

Although the Cullens have been annoying the hell out of me with their calls. Over the past couple of days the Cullens have been calling me constantly. Alice has been calling, trying to get me to come over to her house, and then Rose calls telling me to stop hanging up on Alice and to come over. God, don't these leeches know I like my sleep?

By the nineteenth call, I relent. I tell Jake that I'll be gone for just an hour and that I'll be back after a little "girl talk" with Rose.

I drive over and meet Rose on the front steps. "How's it going?" she asks.

"Right now, I'm having a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger," I tell her with a smirk. She doesn't smile back.

"You okay?" I ask her.

She doesn't meet my eye, "You should talk to Alice."

"Alice? Why Alice?" I ask confused. She doesn't say anything and I just follow her into the house, all the way to Alice.

She's in the living room with the rest of the Cullens, pacing. "What's up Pixie?"

I look at Alice and I know it's bad, really bad. "You should sit. There's something I need to tell you."

I sit down and pray that this news is them accidentally telling Charlie that I'm seeing Jake, who, in turn, told Mom, who's going to tell the whole freaking rez. Please, please let it be that.

"I had a vision, only this time it was different. You were in it," she tells me slowly. Already, I'm confused. I thought she wasn't able to see us because we can phase on a whim. "I don't know what's going on, I only see flashes, but," she sighs, "it doesn't look good."

"How bad?" I ask, not wanting to hear the answer.

"Pretty bad."

* * *

I drive home, my mind still reeling from the vision Alice told me. I'm screaming in agony, Carlisle tries to help me, I cry, I blame Jake for all my pain, I constantly yell "GET THIS IT OUT! GET IT OUT!" before Alice sees blood and the vision goes black.

Fun stuff.

What the hell am I going to do? When does this happen? Why the hell can Alice _see_ me?

I blame Jake, so I must have gotten whatever it is from him. But he wouldn't purposefully slip me something. It's just not like him. But still…

I can't be around him. I need space, I need to figure out what I can do, to try and prevent this from happening. I need to break it off with Jake.

* * *

It's been about… well, it's been too long since I've seen Jake. If I'm not at home, I'm at the Cullens trying to figure out what the hell is "in me." So far, we got nothing.

I've been getting up early, (which was easy since I can't sleep through the night even though I'm exhausted all the time), and going over to the Bat Cave and be prodded by Dracula, M.D. After he gets whatever samples he needs to test whatever disease he wants to test that day, I usually lounge on the couch and watch House with Emmett, Jasper (Who I learned is a pretty cool guy. We share some stuff in common, like wanting to kill Bella. Unlike me, he actually tried to kill Bella. I ignore the fact that he failed and applaud his efforts), and Rose, trying to use the vast knowledge of Dr. Gregory House to figure out what the hell is wrong with me.

So far, we got nothing except a lively debate about who's better: the old ducklings or the new ones. In my opinion, I like the current combination of both the old and the new ducklings.

And Wilson. I love it when he pranks House.

Right now, we're on the fourth season and we still don't have any ideas. I'm sitting in between Emmett and Jasper watching House try to remember what happened before the bus accident. Rose is pacing, practically wearing a hole in the floor, as she mumbles something about "wasting time," and "should be coming up with theories." I would agree, but the drama of House is just too addicting.

Besides, we know for sure that I don't have lupus.

Edward drops Nessie off with Rose as he goes to help Alice and Carlisle with "the tests" and Bella goes help Esme with baking, or gardening, or something.

Nessie just sits at Emmett's feet and stares at the TV intently. Rose leaves the room and runs to Carlisle's office to help. Nessie and I stare after Rose and Emmett just shrugs. "She's just a bit wound up. She'll get over it."

We fall back into a comfortable silence and continue to watch House. When Jasper gets up to put in the season five disk into the DVD player, Nessie turns and asks me, "Why are we watching this when Grandpa Carlisle, Aunt Alice, Aunt Rose, and my father are exhausting all means trying to figure out what they believe to be wrong with you?"

I roll my eyes before returning my gaze to the TV, "Because."

"Aunt Leah, that' is not an answer," she pouts.

I sigh, "Emmett, can you explain this to her please?"

He flashes me a bright smile and nods. "This is research Ness, we're watching this to rule out any possible diseases and infections."

She arches a brow, "Are you really, Uncle Emmett, or are you happy that you now have an excuse to have a House marathon?"

Emmett gasps and clutches a hand to his non-beating heart, "Ness, that hurts. You know I love the She-Wolf and only want to help."

Jasper and I snort and Nessie rolls her eyes before challenging Emmett, "Would you mind enlightening me on the diseases that Aunt Leah does _not _have then?"

Emmett smirks before he pulls out a sheet of paper from his back pocket. He clears his throat and reads, "Okay, so she doesn't have lupus, leprosy, TB, a tumor, schizophrenia, mercury poisoning, an iron deficiency, HIV, the African sleeping sickness, she doesn't have a cold, or allergies…"

He keeps listing all of the sicknesses that I don't have, with help from Jasper who pointed out that I don't have prostate cancer, until Nessie is satisfied with his answer, or just wants him to shut up. We continue to watch season five when Nessie breaks our silence.

She looks up and at me and asks, "May I suggest something?"

"What kid?" I say, while munching sugar covered gummy worms.

Nessie bristles, "Although I have the appearance of a young human child, I am quite advanced. I have surpassed the high school curriculum and am well into University curriculum-"

"Just spit it out," I interrupt, rolling my eyes.

"I have a theory," she smiles.

Jasper straightens and listens to Nessie. "Shoot," I tell her.

"Well, as my family has been thinking about what happen to you by merely focusing on human problems, they have forgotten that you are part wolf," she looks at me expectantly, like I'm going to jump up and say, "Oh yes! I totally forgot that I was part wolf and can get fleas. This explains everything."

When I stare blankly back at her, she nods her head encouragingly, trying to get me to understand, and continues. "I have been reading up on wolves lately, trying to help discover what is wrong. So I began reading up on the wolf's body and how it changes and discovered that a female wolf does not start menstruating until three years _after_ her birth and can stop when a threat has arrived in the area. What I suspect happened to you is exactly what happens to the female wolf. When my family came to Forks, your inner wolf took over and stopped your menstruation cycle, preventing you to become vulnerable with a threat so close. After you phased, your body would still be developing and becoming comfortable with your wolf form, so still no menstruation. After three years, your body started to become comfortable with itself and had grown accustomed to our family being so close."

She smiles at the three of us, "I believe that you have been experiencing your menstrual cycle for the past couple of months and did not even know it."

I arch a brow and tell her sarcastically, "Because I wouldn't notice that I was bleeding every month." Emmett chuckles and Jasper tries to hide his small smile.

She shakes her head and continues, "This is where I believe your shape-shifting abilities come into play. I believe that your fast healing abilities have been preventing you to bleed every month. What is menstruation? It is the shedding of the uterine wall and an unfertilized egg. When we think about your shedding uterine wall and your fast healing abilities, I believe that they work together. You are menstruating but your healing abilities work so quickly to heal you, that you don't bleed." She lets out a breath and smiles at all three of us.

Jasper looks at Nessie and nods, "That is possible. Her wolf instincts to heal could have prevented her from knowing that she is, in fact, menstruating."

Emmett pats Nessie on the shoulder and continues to watch House.

Nessie stares at me, waiting for my reaction. "I'm confused. You think that all this is because I'm getting my period? What about the Pixie's vision? How does that figure into your little theory?" I ask, crossing my arms over my chest.

"Well, that is obvious," she smiles, "you are pregnant."

Pregnant? Ha, no.

"You think she's pregnant?" Jasper asks.

"The She-Wolf is knocked up? Ha!" Emmett laughs.

I stare at my stomach and ask, "I look fat enough to be mistaken as pregnant?"

"Think about it Aunt Leah, you are always tired, you have these very odd food cravings, you have become very moody, you have to go to the bathroom all the time, and you have thrown up four times since you got here. You have all the symptoms that come with being pregnant," she shrugs.

Emmett is laughing his ass off and Jasper is trying to keep me calm.

There is no way that I can be pregnant. It's just not possible. No. I mean, yeah Jake and I have had sex, but I can't be pregnant. Nessie has to be wrong. She's probably only telling me this as a joke.

Yeah, a joke.

But it makes sense. The barfing, always being tired, always being hungry, craving weird combination of foods, having to pee all the time, being pissed one minute and then happy the next, Alice's vision… Fuck.

I just passed out, found out I'm (probably) pregnant, and am woken up by the sounds of shouting. Oh yeah, definitely a good day.

"LEAH! LE-AH!"

Oh great, now my brother's here.

"LE-AH!"

And it doesn't sound like he's going to be leaving any time soon.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


	8. AN: Nominations

**Thanks to ICOTF (waves), I was nominated in ****dontcallmeLeeLee's best stories of '09 for: Best LeahxJacob, Best Wolfpack, and Best Seth story. **

***Smiles***

**Now, since I got a PM from don'tcallmeLeeLee, I really want to participate in the finale poll. But, I need 2-3 more nominations.**

***Smiles***

**That's where you come in.**

**So, I'm asking you guys to help me participate in my first poll thingy, ever.**

**The website is here: ****http://forum(dot)fanfiction(dot)net/topic/66481/20624122/1/ -- replace the (dot) with actual periods.**

**Nominations end tomorrow, the fifth.**

**Thanks a bunch (I will update soon)**

**Lu**


	9. Chapter 8

_Screw Worried Boyfriend, This is Worried Brother_

_I want Answers_

'_You're not?'_

Jake shakes his head_. 'You're going to have a little chat with Alice.'_

'_Alice?'_ I ask. I thought she couldn't see us.

'_Yeah, Alice. The little Pixie knows something.'_ He replays Leah's rant in my head: _"Alice is freaked out, and the fact that she can __see__ me is freaking me out."_

'_You think that has something to do with what's happening to Leah?'_ I ask anxiously. I know she knows something about Leah, Jake definitely needs to go and find out just what it is.

'_Well, you're going to go and figure that out, aren't ya?' _he half jokes, half orders.

'_I guess I am,'_ I nod before I run over to the Cullens'.

As soon as I feel Jake phase, I let all my emotions out. The panic and worry that I've been bottling up for Jake's sake, (the guy is s worrywart, and I didn't think that my worry would help him relax and not have a panic attack), is finally free. I can feel the adrenaline and pure freaking fear coursing through my veins.

Holy shit, what is wrong with Leah? Is she okay? What did Alice _see_? Is it something bad? Does Leah get hurt? Will she be okay? What does it have to do with Jake? And what the hell does she mean by parasite?

I'm not stupid. I know that there's something more to Leah's "condition" with this "parasite" and the Cullens know. They know and they aren't telling anyone. Not me, not Jake, not the pack. They're not telling her family.

I run faster and try to get to the Cullens' as quickly as I can. I need answers, and judging by the overwhelming panic and worry coming off in waves from Jake, (which just proves that if he doesn't calm down and relax for ten minutes that he'll just explode- not phase, but literally explode), he needs answers as well.

Phasing, I throw on my cutoffs and run into the house. "Leah!"

I run into the Cullens' house through the back door and run to the one place I know Leah will be: the kitchen. Running around, I search the huge kitchen, looking in cupboards and underneath stools, only to come up empty.

"LEAH!" I call again, trying to think of a room other than the kitchen, (and the fact that she's not in the kitchen scares the crap out of me. We wolves, screw it, we Clearwaters like to eat. A lot. Frequently. Especially Leah. In the past two weeks I'm pretty sure she's eaten more than Quil, Embry, and Paul- all bottomless pits- combined. She practically lives in our kitchen and she's not in there? Something has to be wrong), where she would hide.

"LE-AH!" I shout. I know she's here; I saw her car in the driveway.

Spinning around in the foyer, I try to get my bearings. Where could she be? She's not in the kitchen, maybe she's in the game room.

She's not here.

Oh my god.

Where is she?

Better yet, when the fuck did she become best friends with Carmen Sandiego and decide to disappear from the world?

Getting sick of this twisted version of hide and seek, (I'm pretty sure it's shaved off ten years of my could-be-if-I-decide-not-to-stop-phasing-and-being-immortal-life), I run over to the dining room and see if she's in there.

She's not.

Not in the kitchen, not in the dining room, she's gone. They're the only places that she would willingly stay in the "Brady Vamp's" house seeing as they are the only places where she could get food.

But she has to be here.

Even if she were hurt, in which case I would do everything in my power to make her feel better before I would kill her, the Cullens would take care of her. They would be compassionate and help her. Even if she kind of-sort of "stole" Jake from Nessie, they would help her, right? All of us in Jake's pack sacrificed our standing at home to help them when the Volturi came, so it would be like they were paying her back by helping her.

They wouldn't be upset about Jake leaving Nessie.

I mean, Nessie can now go out, live on her own, and find her own love and not be told that she has to marry Jake when she's older just because of the imprint. Just like Jake, Nessie's free of the imprint. She can do whatever she wants.

They should be happy, right? Well, I know Edward is happy that Nessie can choose how she wants to lead her life and who she wants to share it with.

Bella, on the other hand…

Not happy. Let's just say that she is "not happy."

But, she wouldn't be "not happy" enough to drug, torture, and kill Leah in revenge for her daughter's loss of Jake (and her loss of Jake, although she will deny it until the day she 'dies'), would she?

Given that she's a vampire and now has the strength and the power of her mind shield, she could very easily harm Leah. Plus, she has the motivation. Leah basically 'took' Jake away from her (from Nessie who I think doesn't care as long as _Jake_ is happy), not to mention the insults and the chewing she gives Bella whenever she's annoyed or bored. I wouldn't be surprised if Bella just got fed up one day and just snapped, lunged at Leah, and killed her.

Knowing Leah, she would push Bella so far that murder would be the only option to deal with her.

And considering how I can't find her and neither Jake nor I have heard from her in the past couple of days, I wouldn't be surprised if this happened.

Shit.

Mum's going to blame me.

Jake's going to kill me.

Fuck.

Leah better be alive and in one piece, or I'll be dead.

Where is she?!

Freaking out, I yell one more time to see if she's conscious and able to answer me. "LE-AH!"

Suddenly I feel something soft being whipped at my head. "Shut up! We just got up to Season 5 in _House_!" Emmet hisses at me.

I walk into the living room and sit down on the couch next to Jasper, who's busy calming me, ready to ask them where my sister is. Just as I'm about to ask, I hear a familiar voice.

"For what reason do you think it's necessary to yell in a house full of supernatural beings that have a heightened sense of hearing, dweeb?" Leah questions while wiping her mouth.

I don't care that's she's insulted me, or has had me worrying, or has had Jake worrying, or that she smells funny, because she's here.

She's alive.

She's in one piece.

And she's insulting me.

She's definitely okay.

Oh thank God. I have never been happier to see her in my entire life.

Leah.

My Beta. My sister. My reason for almost having a panic attack.

Ha, I found Waldo.

Huh, this is actually going pretty well. My list is almost done:

Find Leah. Check.

Find out what's wrong with her and why she has been avoiding Jake (and me). Not check.

Bring her home. Not check.

Meh, one out of three so far, that's not bad.

Rushing over to Leah, I give her a huge hug. "Don't you ever scare the shit out of me like that _ever_ again. I swear to God, if you do something like that one more time, Lee, I'll—" I pause and sniff her shoulder. God, she smells weird. Trying to put this delicately, I tell her cautiously, "Lee, you smell different."

She breaks away from me and glares, crossing her arms across her chest. "You don't smell like a bed of roses yourself, you little twerp."

Leah plops down onto the couch, resting her feet on Emmett's lap.

Following Leah's lead, I sit back down in my original place beside Jasper and try and watch _House_. Jasper and Emmett both chuckle at House and Wilson's witty dialogue while Leah smirks and Nessie just smiles and shakes her head. Unable to get into the show, I stare at Leah.

She looks fine. Nothing looks broken, scratched, maimed, torn, sprained, pulverized, bruised, or anything of the like. Leah looks like Leah. If she didn't, I would have to kick someone's ass, which would result in me getting my ass kicked, before going home and having Jake kick my ass, right before Mum verbally kicked my ass.

Smiling like an idiot, I just stare at Leah and think that checking off "Find out what's wrong with her and why she has been avoiding Jake (and me)" might not be that difficult. I mean, how bad could it be? She looks fine, she's acting like herself, it doesn't seem like there's anything wrong with her. Sure, she's been avoiding Jake and I, and then there is that whole thing with Jake and the fact that Alice can _'see'_ her is weird, but it's probably not that bad. There's probably a logical explanation for it.

Like, Leah felt that things between her and Jake were moving too fast and wanted a break. Maybe she wants to travel and restart fresh somewhere and actually _be_ a human. Maybe that's why Alice could _see_ her. Maybe she stopped phasing and decided to be human for a change. She could have decided to leave La Push, Sam and Emily, Dad, Mum, me, Jake, basically just leave everything to discover herself. Find out what she wants to be, what she wants to do, what she _can_ do, everything that a twenty-something year old is supposed to do.

But that doesn't explain why Alice is freaked out. Surely she, Edward, Carlisle, and Rose could have put their heads together to come up with one plausible idea as to why Alice could _see_ Leah. And even if they couldn't, I don't understand why she's so freaked out. When she could finally see Nessie's future, a result of Jake deciding to be with Leah, Alice didn't freak out when she could see her in some jungle with Nahuel. Well, she did freak out, but that was different. She was freaking out because she saw that Ness would have what appeared to be a relationship with Nahuel.

So why is she freaked about Leah? What could she have seen? It couldn't have been that bad. Could it? Could she be freaking out because she _saw_ Leah with another guy? Could Alice have _seen_ Leah get hurt? Or could she have _seen _the aftermath of something involving Leah?

Suddenly, I feel a sick, heavy feeling creeping into my stomach and making me feel sick. Now I get why Jake was so nervous: with Leah not phasing and the whole vision thing just looming around us we don't know anything. We just assume the worst. Since the only information we're getting is in clue form and we don't really have anyone telling us "No, no, it's not _that_ bad. There's been worse. We'll all be fine" we freak out even more. Because things might not be fine. Things could be bad, very bad.

I stare at Leah, taking her in and trying to forget a single detail about my sister, because Taha Aki knows what the hell is going on with her.

After a few minutes of my staring, Leah grows uncomfortable and shouts, "WHAT?", shooting a venomous glare my way.

Shaking my head, I mumble, "Nothing."

What the hell can I tell her? "Oh hey sis, I was just trying to remember every detail about you because I think you might be dying?" Yeah, that will go over really well.

Leah lets out a huff and rearranges herself in an attempt to get comfortable on the couch and orders me to stop staring at her.

After the episode ends, Nessie, who is able to understand the serious tension between Leah and I, and Jasper, who can literally feel the tension between Leah and I, get up from their spots and "subtly" try to make their way out of the room with Emmett. It probably would have worked if Emmett hadn't whined and complained saying that he wants to watch one more episode and that he doesn't think it's fair how he's always kicked out of the room whenever something interesting might happen.

As soon as I can no longer hear their chattering, I turn to face Leah who, despite Emmett's fuss, didn't budge from her spot on the couch.

Sending her cautious glances, I try to talk to her. "Lee, are you okay?" I ask tentatively, aware of her mood swings.

"Define 'okay'," Leah half-jokes, half-asks. She sighs and waves her hand in a nonchalant manner. "Yeah, yeah, I just wanted to hang out with the Brady Leeches for a bit."

I feel my eyebrows hit my hairline. She wanted to hang out with cold, dead, sparkly, smelly (just stating facts, it doesn't mean I don't like them) vamps for two weeks instead of being all gross and lovey-dovey with Jake? Ha, like hell.

"For two weeks?" I arch a brow. I can see her hanging out with all of them except for one, Bella. She and Edward are here all the time and I highly doubt that Leah would stay less than a hundred feet from Bella out of her own free will.

"They're really fun?" Leah 'states' with a sheepish smile and a shrug.

Rolling my eyes at her, I'm struck with a thought. What if she wasn't here of her own free will? What if she was being kept here? Of course it would be way bigger than Bella trying to torture her, the whole house has to be in on it. You know what, this doesn't surprise me. Carlisle has been dying-err itching to run some tests on Leah. He hasn't had the chance since Leah refuses to be his "pet dog that he could just poke needles in" even though he swears it's for "the good of science."

Leaning in towards her, I look around the room and listen, trying to hear if any of the Cullens are nearby before I ask my question. Whispering, I ask her, "Lee, did they… did they _do_ something to you? Did they drug you? You can tell me."

Leah just stares at me slack-jawed before answering, "…No."

The silence is all I need. Her expression says it all.

"Oh my god! They did, didn't they!" I shout. "Why didn't you tell me! Of course, you couldn't tell me, they'd know! Oh my God, I knew we should have listened to you. The pack should have made a safe word for these types of situations." I jump up from my seat and start to pace.

Sparing a glance at her, Leah looks stunned. She didn't think that I would get it, but that's okay, the only important thing is that I know and now I can help her. I can try to smuggle her out of the house.

I can smuggle her out of this drug slipping, kidnapping house full of vampires.

The bastards.

They drugged my sister.

Leah shakes her head before telling me, "Seth, I'm fine."

They could have threatened her that if she didn't tell me that that they would… well they would do something bad. Something worse than the drugs. But the slightly pissed off and tired look she has on her face says otherwise. It tells me that she's tired and that all she wants to do is rest. The question is: why?

Pushing the questions aside, I look at her with a worried face and ask, "Really?"

She gives me a tired smile and a nod. "Other than the fact that I'm having a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger, yeah, I'm just peachy."

Letting out a sigh, I plop down on the couch next to her, causing her to bump in the air. "Great. You had me worried there for a sec, Lee."

I just barely get that out before Leah runs to the kitchen and throws up in the sink.

Aw shit. She's definitely not fine.

Find out what's wrong with Leah.

Definitely _not_ check.

* * *

**Disclaimer:** All of the characters, concepts, and anything affiliated with the _Twilight_ saga belong to (their rightful owner) Stephanie Meyer. The rest of the work belongs to me and should not be copied in any way, including translations, without my explicit consent.

Major thanks to Flyaway Dove for Beta-ing this.


End file.
